Evaluation to some degree

well we started looking at a lot of places at perform as we needed to do it in another place rather than on school grounds so we went exploring round to different place to find a performance place only to come across St Margret's church. it had what we was looking for so we emailed them and they said it was ok to perform in. so that where we started. we looked around the place and even the graveyard and ideas come to all of us. so when we got back to school they all came out from short ideas to full performance length ideas. we were then told we had 4 weeks to get this done. we slightly panicked a bit (well i know i did) and we got onto our ideas and march though what we wanted to do and we did that for 2-4 lessons.

after a while we had a person called Steve come in a show us contemporary movement and how to use it effectively. we managed to put together scenes using contemporary movements and this would later spark contemporary dance for our piece ( this being Birdy help the people, Paramore we are broken and Jay and Millie's starting argument which was all done by contemporary dance) it proved to help us out a lot and we were thankful for it.

at some points we went through a stage of a scene per day this helped us a lot as we were moving at such a fast pace but it was bad in a way as we forgot what scenes went where so we ended up putting them in a list so we knew but we did forget them as we was moving so fast so it was just a matter of taking the time to go back over the scenes again to learn them

as performance day approached no one was stressed like they would normally be, ok we were feeling the pressure but no one was freaking out about not knowing lines or anything so this was a very good sign and i loved every minute of it. we all knew what we were doing and it just seemed easy.

performance night:

last thing i remember as i ran around the corner screaming at the audience was me and Joe looking around the corner and seeing so many people there and it boasted us up before performing which was nice as we was ready to go out there and face them.

the performance overall went very smoothly. with only minor faults with audio cutting out in places but apart from that nothing major went wrong and at the end we had people crying in the audience meaning we had a really good turn out. i was so happy everyone enjoyed watching something that was brought together in a matter of weeks to turn out to be a masterpiece. it was a brilliant performance by everyone and I'm so please i was a part of such a talented team.

is there anything i would change? 

if i had to change anything. i would have to spend more time on the extras as when we came to plan, we was hoping to get the extras doing a scene at the beginning basically making it look like normal people in the performance not just extras. plus it would of looked better than them just shouting at the audience. so if with more time we could of worked with them on a few scenes so it made them clear what they were doing.

also it would of been nice to have more extras as the more we could have the more crazier the atmosphere for the audience would have been. plus if we had the time we could of worked out for everyone what to do and where to go. could of been amazing.

i also would change how many times we could perform it as it was such a good performance i would of loved to do it for a week. but also with that we could of had fewer audience each night so it was easier to move the audience around as on the night, we had about 60-70 people and it was quite hard to move everyone around.

would i script anything or not?

i wouldn't like to script anything as i prefer the heat in the moment action and it looks quite good as i feel you can show more of your character if you don't script it. but if you do script it you then have the problem of learning lines and trying to remain in your character. and if you forgot those lines two things could happen 1. you freeze and don't say anything and look like an idiot or 2. you improvise as much as you can to save yourself but at the same time you throw the other characters off meaning they have to improvise too. so its much easier to practice improvising scenes over and over so you have an idea of where you're going with the scene.

anything that needs to be improved? 

my dancing, and most probably singing a song solo but that would have taken time and singing lesson ( as i feel im not really good at singing ) but nevertheless i would of loved to do that. but not really anything that needs to be improved that i haven't already explained already in the above paragraphs 

if you could do it again would you do anything different?

if we had to do it again (which we should of done anyway) we could look at different places to perform at to see if we could of done something else. see i would say if we had more time we could of worked on more stuff and tried more things out. but i don't like that idea as the fast pace of our lessons were easy and everyone knew what to do when the lesson started. after a while it just seemed normal. so i wouldn't want more time, in fact less time so we probably would of worked faster.

writing in role 2

Note to self:

i dont know the date, i dont know the time, i dont know anything! my whole life up to this point has just been pointless. money isnt even worth anything anymore you just have to raid stores to get food and drink. this is awful. i cant take it. i remember a civilized england where people would have to work to get stuff not raid and kill to get it. this is morally wrong and i want it all to be over. they took my work. they took my home. but they will never get to me easily. i will fight my way to any survival point and hope for the best. i cant trust anyone. the last people i trusted beat me and took everything i had. its a dog eat dog world out there its is basically hell on earth and only the fittest get by. i need to survive this, i need to survive this! ok lets just think for a bit. where am i now? i am held up in a dirty trench in a field somewhere, it looks like the military abandoned it as it was overrun but no one has come back here so its mine now no one elses!

what am i doing i cant beat them. not alone anyway. its impossible odds i guess thats why the military pulled back so quick. its funny i thought guns would beat a lot of people throwing stones. i guess not. i guess we just wasn't ready for this. i hope if we manage to get through this they make sure something like this never ever happens again. yesterday i watched a grown man beat a child to death for fun. it made me sick to my stomach why are people so cruel. what has the world come to?

i should start moving soon, they say its best to move at night so the rioters cant see you. but they are upgrading their gear everyday from what they steal off the military so it wouldn't surprise me if they have night vision goggles by now. the chances of living go down every day and i just wonder to myself when is it my time? how will it happen? only time will tell.

writing in role

Dear mum,
              i don't know if you are still alive or have been taken by the rioters already, but i miss you and i hope you are ok. i know in the past we have had our fall outs and im sorry for all of them. you have no idea how much you mean to me and i know since dad passed away it has been hard for you and i haven't always been there for you because i have been busy. but i promise when this is all over im going to find you and spend more time with you. i mean you are my mum after all i cant just ignore someone so close to me.

look, the reason im writing to you is to tell you i am safe. for now. im held up in a church with quite a lot of people hiding from those rioters and i thought you would just like to know how i am as its been so long since ive seen you. but anyway these people seem quite nice for people who have gone through hell so i trust them a little bit i don't know how long for.

i don't have anything else to tell you apart from ive lost everything and the only thing i have is myself. i dont know how to survive this crazy mess but i hope it brings people together and they fight this thing otherwise our country will be run by rioters for years to come. i think after loosing everything to them its about time to fight them. but you should know that would be my reaction. im your little soldier fighting on every front line to protect the good. i wish i could go back to those days. those days where it was simple. but its all gone now and there is nothing i can do.

well i hope you are ok and i hope to see you soon.

Michael.

character development throughout the performance

at the start of the performance we see Michael as a scared arrogant character who just wants to rest and for everyone to leave him alone. as sam pushes the kieran aside he springs up and follows him to see what happens he then quickly released what was going on so he took sam out and threw away the knife. he was seen as a hero but in realty he just wanted to make sure he was safe. also when he finally talks to sam you hear a bit about what happened to them and how they were at the train station

few more scenes down the line we see and argument arise when mark says to kick Stevie out as its her who they are after. Michael votes with him and say why and confronts kieran about his beliefs showing he is getting stronger.

while building the barricade we see a whole new person. he helps other people to build the barricade with him and then he say we cant do it alone and we need more help.

and then towards then end he has an big argument with everyone about how they have given up and that they should fight to survive and after telling what they wanted to be as a kid he realizes that they have completely given up and tries to raise the moral of everyone by saying he cant listen to all that, it sounds like they are ready to die. he isn't he stand up goes over to the barricade and gets a weapon stands in front of them and says well im fighting with or without you. and eventually everyone comes together and they all walk out the door.

My character profile and background

Name: Michael Simmons

Age:28

Job: works as a financial manager of a building company and staff manager
address

Born:  Queen Mary's hospital, Sidcup

Michael had an middle class upbringing as he parents wasn't really rich, but they wasn't poor either. growing up. Michael loved running around as a soldier with his friends he was a real leader. he gave commands and created a war zone from his imagination and he loved it. his parents thought it was just a phase and just let him get on with it. they were wrong. at the age of 12 he started getting bigger guns and at the age of 13 joined the army cadets he did everything he wanted, shoot guns and explore and be the leader he once was with his friends. at the age of 18 he started his job as a builder. after 2 years his hard work had paid off and he got a promotion but not just the basic promotion. as his education showed he had studied financial and had work experience as a financial accountant he was offered the job as a financial assistant. After 4 more years of him being financial assistance and he did extra time as a builder for more money he then got offered a promotion as staff manager as he got on well with the other builders. he accepted it and he got working. 3 more years passed and he was offered financial manager position as the other manager had to step down as he was getting old. so now Michael was in a job that he got a lot of money for but to be honest. he didn't like it. he knew in his heart he loved being a soldier and he was waiting for his opportunity. later on that year the riots came and the companies building rate was slowing down. it seems as some of his employees has been stealing from the company, joined the rioters or was complaining that they didn't have enough money to survive on. so head office gave the order to fire 30% of the company but for Michael,( age 28 now) he was recommended to fire mark (a hard working builder) so he got the guts to invite mark to his office and tell him. about 2 hours after he fired mark. a message came from head office that they had got it wrong and it was another employee. Michael couldn't believe it. he went home and came back the next day with his offices destroyed with 'an eye for an eye' spray painted on the wall of the burnt out offices. he couldn't do anything apart from find bits of his pictures he had in his office. so he went home to his house on fire. he had lost everything. so he decided this was his time to go and join the army to help fight the rioters he went down to Rainham train station and that's where it happened. they didn't let anyone else on the train and he fought the rioters until he found an opportunity to run. so he did. he ran up the road as quick as he can with a few other people who had made it out and saw the church and ran for that for salvation. michael has never been a religious man, but he will strongly rely on a church to save himself

more research mainly pictures + videos

as you can see from this video this is disturbing behavior and this was at the peek of the riots and it could of got worse if it wasn't controlled properly




this video shows how the police was heavily outnumbered against the rioters and that if they didnt use commands and communication between each other they could have suffered injury or even death if they didn't hold their formation.




another video showing the true devastation of the riots and what they did. this is just sickening. you just see people walking down the street will stolen good. if these didnt stop. it would just be a free for all to get food and supplies. in fact we all would be scavenging around to survive.

The London riots (research bit)

Between 6 and 10 August 2011, thousands of people rioted in several London boroughs and in cities and towns across England. The resulting chaos generated looting, arson, and mass deployment of police. The events were also called "BlackBerry riots" because people used mobile devices and social media to organize.

Disturbances began on 6 August 2011, after a protest in Tottenham following the death of Mark Duggan, a local who was shot dead by police on 4 August 2011. Protesters became angry after police attacked a sixteen-year-old girl who was alleged to have provoked them. Several violent clashes with police, along with the destruction of police vehicles, magistrates' court, a double-decker bus, many civilian homes and businesses, began gaining attention from the media. Overnight, looting took place in Tottenham Hale Retail Park and nearby Wood Green.

The following days saw similar scenes in other parts of London, with the most rioting taking place in Hackney, Brixton, Chingford, Walthamstow, Peckham, Enfield, Battersea, Croydon, Ealing, and East Ham, Oxford Circus. From 8 until 10 August, other cities in England including Birmingham, Bristol, and Manchester, along with several towns, saw what was described by the media as "copycat violence". A fire destroyed a former nightclub in Portsmouth on 9 August, the cause of the fire has not been publicly released although Hampshire Police have stated there was nothing to suggest it was related to the riots.

British Prime Minister David Cameron returned from his holiday in Italy and other government and opposition leaders also came back from their holidays to attend to the matter. All police leave was cancelled and Parliament was recalled on 11 August to debate the situation.

As of 15 August, about 3,100 people had been arrested, of whom more than 1,000 had been charged. Arrests, charges and court proceedings continue. Initially, courts sat for extended hours. There were a total 3,443 crimes across London linked to the disorder. Emergency calls on Monday night saw a 300% increase, from 5,400 normally to 20,800. Along with the five deaths, at least 16 others were injured as a direct result of related violent acts. An estimated £200 million worth of property damage was incurred, and local economic activity was significantly compromised.

The riots have generated significant ongoing debate among political, social and academic figures about the causes and context in which they happened. Attributions for the rioters' behavior include structural factors such as racism, classism, and economic decline, as well as cultural factors like criminality, hooliganism, breakdown of social morality, and gang culture.

so what if the london riots didnt stop? what would happen? that is what the performance shows

poster

the poster was made by all of us and we thought the blood splat on the 'if' looked very good! the riot in the background shows a little bit about our performance and the text explaining what happens gets the reader intrigued into it which is what we wanted. the whole look of it was very good and it made clear where it was and the date. for me this is a great poster :)

argument leading to Stevie's death

Argument leading up to Stevie’s death:

1.  “What do we do now?”

2. Kieran comforts her with talking about God and how change is scary and new.

3. Jay interrupts Kieran, as he completely disagrees with him.

4. Kieran carries on with ‘God Talk’.

5. Jay says that Stevie should be kicked out and its her they want.

6. Dave comes in and agrees with Jay “It will buy us some time”.

7. Kieran talking about Ten Commandments, “Thou shall not kill”.

8. Jay gets more annoyed that Kieran refers to God.

9. Millie jumps in annoyed with Jay.

10. Overlap of arguments.

11. Stevie’s breakdown.

12. Silence.

13. Dave goes “There’s the door”.

                           14. Kieran “ Who are you to judge? He that is without sin shall cast the first stone”.

15. Jay is completely annoyed with Kieran now.

16. Jay brings Joe in, about his daughter.

17. Kieran says “I don’t know”

18. Jay and Dave verbally attack Kieran.

19. Silence.

20. Joe has a go at Jay.

21. “Remember who you were before…”

i am so glad we did this as i didn't 100% know what to do at certain points so at times it was just guess and hope for the best. But when we had this in place we found it so much easier to work with. it guided us through what to do because in rehearsals we ended up just having an argue which then moved onto something irreverent or we just went round in circles. both ways wasn't getting us anywhere so we needed to do this and i think it did a good job.

transitions into scenes

Transitions:

1. Joe banging on the door ‘Let us in!’ – Chris opens the door.

2. End of Joe’s scene ‘Who else is there?’ – Jay and Millie’s argument is heard.

3. End of Jay and Millie’s scene ‘What are we going to do with them?’ – Jay leads them out.

4. End of Jay and Dave’s scene ‘I have nothing’ – Millie walks onto main altar with candle.

5. End of Stevie’s story Millie says to Joe ‘That wasn’t necessary’ – Millie runs off to get Stevie.

6.  End of Joe and Kieran’s scene Millie says ‘Ssshh! I can hear them’ – leads into soundscape.

7. End of soundscape everyone stays where they are ready for ‘When Will Someone Hear’ at end of this Millie joins the others – leads into Angry Dance.

8. End of Angry Dance look out into audience and notice Stevie’s gone.

9. ‘We cant afford to back out now’, ‘I thought we were in this together?’, ‘The whole point is that we aren’t going to do this alone…’.

10. End of ‘People Help the People’, ears to floor – Stevie says ‘What now?’ – leads into argument (Whether God is actually here etc.)

11.  End of argument, Joe says ‘STOP! We need to remember who we were before the riots…’ – leads into Paramore.

12. End of Paramore, Stevie decides to leave the church, slow motion – leads into another argument how we’ve ‘killed’ Stevie.

13. As argument quietens, acceptance that we are going to die eventually – leads into what we wanted to be when we grew up – leads into conflict with Joe and Dave.

14.  Dave stands up for himself ‘I am going to die fighting’ etc. Leads into Coldplay ‘Us Against The World’ – End.  

the list above helped us know what we were doing at that time. basically little cues so when we heard them we knew what to do. we also needed to do this, so we could tell the extras what to do and when to do it so it isn't just a guessing game.

im so happy we did this as there was one major bit where we did really know what we were doing and that is Millie's song into angry dance. i had no idea what i was doing until we wrote it out.

techniques

we used quite a few techniques in our performance, we also tried other techniques that we haven't used before for instants, we used contemporary dance. ill be honest, when it was suggest and we started doing it. i didn't like it. then i saw how effective it can be when we started dancing to birdy help the people. i started liking all the flowing movements and how it all came together was amazing. i knew that this could be very useful to our piece and wish we did more of it! although it was already used in Jay and Millie scene, Birdy and paramore we could of used more of it.


another technique was slow motion

we used slow motion at Stevie's death as it showed the emotion for each of the characters at the time for example, Joe was devastated as he didn't want to see another person die. and me i was a little down as we killed someone, but glad as it brought us some time to prepare.

we also used music in the piece and through it, we showed either anger or desperation for help. we had singing in there that showed we are not alone we have each other and we are going to fight to survive. 

we had freeze frames in mine and jay's scene and along with it monologue's each to portray our life before the riots and how me and jay were colleges if you want to put it that way. he worked for me, and i fired him because he was behind by a week ( harsh right!??) anyway he got fired and he burned my offices down! i mean that is a really good reaction from being fired. and we told the audience through the monologues, after we had said them we went back to the position we were in to show one was a monologue and the other is the scene. ( you know what i mean )  

  

extras

when we came to choosing what extras were doing. it was a fun and quick process. we started on a white board and talked about characters and what relationships they had with other characters. we ended up having 10 extras, a single man, doctor, pregnant woman, burnt/ torture victim, child, policeman, rioter, blanket people x 2  and a sports man.

the whole point of the extras where to create the atmosphere throughout the performance and to help move the audience around at the right time. this made everyone else's  job easier so there was no stress when we came to perform.

the extras worked out to be perfect fit, as the doctor at the beginning would run around tending to wounds and asking people if they need a doctor, and we had the child asking where his mother is... the burnt victim was trying to do stuff he would normally do (for example open the door for us at the beginning) and the rest of the extra would moan at him and the doctor would help him and tell him he cant do it in his condition. they all basically made the atmosphere at the beginning for the audience like they have walked into living hell and you could tell they were scared so that mean we did a good job... that or they will get scared every time they enter a church.

Creating the final scene

We all came together and decided that we wanted live music, dancing and dialogue

We considered several different songs, looking at both the lyrics, their musicality (the tempo, dynamics etc), and their scope for acoustic guitar/singing. and after listening to many songs the list below is what we came up with:

People - Birdie
We Are Broken - Paramore
Us Against the Machine - Coldplay
God & Satan - Biffy

we decided that these songs fitted the atmosphere to the play perfectly and had them in the performance. so we then decided how to put them in order for the final scene
The structure for the final scene is agreed as:

1. Dialogue
2. Dance - everyone. To 'People'
3.  Dialogue
4.  Song - Coldplay (Jay to start, everyone to gradually join in)
 Jay would like the sitting down in a circle at the end of the dance.

The performance will end with the sounds of the riot getting closer and closer.  Eventually, the "riot" breaks into the Church - sound effects become deafening.  All look to the main door (as if the crowd is behind the audience). then after that it is a Blackout. 

It was also agreed that Kieran will start to play and sing God & Satan at the end of his scene with Joe and then Joe will join in, bringing these two characters together.  By the end, everyone is joined together.

the whole point of this all happening is to show that we came all strangers to each other and through the performance become more and more attached and by the end everyone is close no matter if they had problems in the past they all came together to fight and most probably die together ( we don't for definite that they died but we assume that they did) this ended up being a very effective ending.

running order of performance

after all our hard work we managed to get these scenes in a matter of 3ish weeks
This is the agreed order for the scenes/songs/episodes in "What If?"  In total, we currently have around 75 minutes of material.  

• OPENING - Arrival at Church, ushering audience in.  Kieran ends service, greets people. 
• JOE'S STORY

• MILLIE & JAY'S STORY

• JAY & DAVE'S STORY

• STEVIE'S STORY

• JOE & KIERAN (including Ghost & God vs Satan)

• SOUNDSCAPE & COLLECTING BARRICADE MATERIALS (When Will Someone Hear?)
• BUILDING THE BARRICADE (Angry Dance)

• DANCE - moment of silence after barricade then into Birdie

• KICKING OUT THE PRIME MINISTER 
• PARAMORE - what did you do before the riots?
• FINAL SCENE (Stevie leaves,  Silent desperate reactions, Noise - Millie attacks Jay, Conversation "what is there to go back to?",  Rioters are back,  Acceptance - what are your dreams?,  Coldplay)

The Venue + extra bits

For the venue we looked at a few different places, to decide on where to perform. we went to Rochester cathedral, we looked at dockside in Chatham, looked at the Saint Thomas of Canterbury Roman Catholic Church and ST Margaret's church. in the end we decided that it would be best if we did our performance in St Margaret's church, it had the space and the "levels" we needed. we started laying out different areas while we were there and had many ideas in our head so we went back to school to talk about them.

we like the graveyard a lot but tried to find a way to use it and not be disrespectful. it worked out to be a lot of work trying to do that so we thought it would be easier to keep it mainly inside. (it ended up being something like 99% inside and 1% outside which would be the beginning which i will talk about later) 

around the place we had chosen we had lots and lots of work but very little time to talk about them. we had 4 week to get a whole play that lasts for about an hour ready to perform in that short space of time.

My personal thoughts:
At the time of choosing the play and being told how long we had, i knew it was a challenge and a hard one at that. i didn't know if we could do it in that time as we always normally had around 8 or more weeks to prepare so this has never been done before. everyday it was hands on coming up with a scene per day at some points. the church was a very good fit for our play as they didn't really restrict us on anything and were a great help, I'm glad we didn't choose anything else.