Final house

For the final pigs house Harry wanted to do a chant so that we can get the audience directly involved in the building of a house. We took the song ‘Brick by Brick’ by the Arctic Monkeys and changed the lyrics. The original song itself would be in no way suitable for younger children as it has adult themes. However we kept the second line of the song the same as it went ‘brick by brick’ we feel that this was suitable for the scene as the pig was building his house out of bricks. Also the chant is very simple and the children would pick up on instantly. Harry explained to the audience that every time he sings a line he is going to point to them and they need to shout the words ‘Brick by Brick’.

I’m gunna build my house

Brick by brick

Not for a mouse

Brick by brick

I’m gunna build it high

Brick by brick

Up to the sky

Brick by brick

I’m gunna build it strong

Brick by brick

What could go wrong?

Brick by brick

No straw no sticks

Brick by brick

Just load of bricks

Brick by brick

Now one for thing

Brick by brick

To add some bling

Brick by brick

This brick that’s pink

Brick by brick

What do you think?

research and overview of the play

After looking through my old book collection from when I was younger I found my old copy of Green Eggs and Ham. I believe that this book has a lot of techniques and ideas that we used or could have used. First of all, the phrase ‘I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them Sam I am’ I believe we can learn a lot from this. The phrase is repeated at the end of every page. This means that the children can learn what it is and even into the later years of my school life I can still remember that phrase. We used the repetition technique in our performance. Every time the Wolf came on stage he would bang on his chest and hum in a beat. At the very start of the play we told the children that this was the ‘noise of the Big Bad Wolf’ and that every time they see him they have to ‘BOO’ this worked perfectly as the children knew when to boo and they were always quite whenever we ask them to be. We took the audience interaction aspect of our play from pantomimes. The fact that pantomimes have been so successful and are regarded as one of the most popular forms of children’s entertainment was a big point for us. We wanted to include features from a pantomime into our performance. In every pantomime the narrator tells the audience to boo whenever the main villain comes onto the stage. We used this technique because we wanted the audience to be involved enough so that they would not get bored.

The audience itself consisted of the younger years of a primary school. This was perfect for the ideas and themes we used. We mostly focused on comedy that the audience would find funny. We used a lot of slapstick humour such as falling over and farting. We also used a lot of puns that the teachers would find funny. The younger children would not necessarily understand the puns that we used but we thought that because the teachers watched the performance as well we should have something for them to enjoy as well.

We also wanted to have a moral for the children so that it would be considered by the teachers to be a very suitable performance as it is teaching them good morals. The main moral was to forgive people if they say sorry. This was shown right at the end of the play when the big bad wolf came to apologise and we invite him to have Christmas dinner with us. Danny best summed it up when he invited in the wolf by stating that Christmas time is a time for giving and love. Another moral we had in the play was to say sorry when you have done something wrong. Throughout the play the Big Bad Wolf would lie, call the pigs names and break their thing ( their houses) however after he goes into the brick house and the three pigs dress up as the wolfs mother. We tell the wolf he has been very ‘naughty for blowing down the pigs houses’ however we also gave him a hug. This shows the children that when someone is shouting it doesn’t mean that they don’t love you. It also showed the children that they shouldn’t misbehave and should treat everyone the way they would want to be treated.

character profile

Name: Snort

Nick name: Snozzer

Age: 8 years

Residence: House of bricks. He builds his own house but it was blown down by the Big Bad Wolf.

Occupation: Farmer. Ukulele player.

Skills/ personality: Can play ukulele. Not very smart but practical (build his own house but out of straw)

Eye colour: Blue

Hair colour: Light Brown.

Skin colour: pink

Clothes: Jeans, trainers, dress shirt and red braces

Characteristics: often talks extremely fast when trying to explain something that has happened (E.g., explaining the Wolf blew down his house) Short.

Intelligence: below average. Gullible.

Fears: The Big Bad Wolf. Living alone. Losing his Ukulele.

Likes: His older brothers. His mother. Fried bread.

Most cherished possession: Ukulele.

Family: Two older brothers and a mum.

Techniques used

Songs:
We used several songs for our performance. We used three songs from the disney film Frozen. The first song we used was 'do you wanna build a snowman?' We changed this to 'do you wanna build a house kids?'

Do you want to build a house kids
Come on and help me out
I do not feel safe anymore
Ive got some straw
You'll help me out no doubt

I used to live with mummy now i dont
I wish she was here right now
Do you want to build a house kids
Please help me build my house kids
Help me out

We used this song at the point where the first pig build his house. We decided to use Frozen songs because we felt the children would enjoy the songs if they recongnised the songs.

The next song we used was let it go. We changed this to 'grab some straw'

Grab some straw
Get some more
Put it all against the wall
Get some more
Grab more straw
Could you imagine if it falls
We dont care what the wolf will do
Let him huff and puff
The wolf never scared me much anyway

We decided to use songs from a film that the children would recongnise so that they would listen more to what was being said. If we used songs they wouldn't recongise, they may not have paid as much attention.

THE THREE LITTLE PIGS STORY

The three little pigs is a story that dates back to 1840 when it was first published. However the story itself can be linked to the story The wolf and seven young kids which dates back to 1812. The original story of the three little pigs tells the tale of three pigs going off and building themselves homes all made from different materials. The first pigs uses straw, the second uses wood and the final pig uses bricks. Then the big bad wolf shows up, blows down the straw house and eats the pig, then moves onto the second. Blows that down and eats the pig and finally continues onto the final house. He is then unable to blow this house down so he climbs down the chimney. However the final pig see's this coming so he catches the wolf in a caldron and locks the lid on. He the proceeds to boil the wolf alive and when the wolf is cooked the pig eat hims. This is a very dark story and I think is extremely unsuitable for children due to is horrific ending. Another adaptation of the three little pigs is the three little wolves. In this version the story is reversed. The wolves all go off and build their houses all made out of different materials and the Big bad pig destroys them. The most well known version of the story is very similar to the original. However the ending has been edited and now the wolf climbs down the chimney and gets lit on fire so he runs away and leaves the pigs alone. This is the version we are using however instead of the wolves getting caught on fire. The three pigs sneak out and dress like the wolves mother and tell him off for being mean to the little pigs. We feel that this is going to be a more appropriate ending as it is comical and will give across a moral of not to be nasty to anyone.

3rd November

Today we set out the final scenes of our performance. We have finished the scene where we build the brick house and the scene where the wolf tries to get into the house. For the scene Harry is going to teaches the children a chant that he is going to use when he builds his house. He says 'when ever I point at you can you shout: Brick by brick' Harry uses the pronous 'you' so that the children know that he is addressing them instead of someone one the stage also the fact that he points to the children is helpful for them as it gives a clear indication on when they are supposed to shout. After Harry teaches the chant, Me and Jake kavanagh run on and tell Harry that our houses have been blown down by the Big Bad Wolf. We then build Harry's house whilst taking part in his chant. When we finish we go inside and continue chanting 'brick by brick' This is when the wolf shows up and tries to get the children to help him with his chant (which is a flipped version of harry's) We are hoping that because the wolf has been shown as the antagonist, the children won't join in. In this scene I am going to play my character as a scared helpless childlike person. He is going to hide behind the other pigs and hide from the wolf.

This week in rehearsal 20th oct-23rd

This week in rehearsal we worked mostly on songs we are going to use for our performance. Because we are performing to young children we have taken songs from the disney film Frozen and changed the lyrics to fit our performance.

The scene we worked on is the scene were we build the house of straw. The scene starts with my character sitting on the floor looking lonely and upset as he doesnt know how to build his house. This is when i start ainging my first song.
The lyrics for this song are in the sytle of 'do you wanna build a snowman:

Do you want to build a house kids
Come on and help me out
I do not feel safe anymore
Ive got some straw
You'll help me out no doubt

I used to live with mummy now i dont
I wish she was here right now
Do you want to build a house kids
Please help me build my house kids
Help me out.

At this point the two other pigs come on and start to help me build my house. This is when i have my other song. Which is in the style of 'Let it go' from frozen.

Grab some straw
Get some more

Put it all against the wall
Get some more

Grab more straw
Could you imagine if it falls

We dont care what the wolf will do
Let him huff and puff

The wolf never scared me much anyway

After this i go into my housr and the wolf shows up. My house is then blown down and i run to the next pigs house.
The only fault I can find with this scene is the second song. Because we havnt rehearsed it very much wr are still stuggling with it. However once we do it a few more times we will have it down to a tee.
Over the half term I am going to learn both the songs I sing and do some character work so that i am more in touch with my character and i am able to portray him efficiantly.