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.

Thoughts of childrens theatre

I personally have mixed opinions on childrens theatre. I do enjoy acting in some of it such as the Three little pigs performance and some the skill building excersises we do. I feel that these excersises help me improve as an actor and help me buold skills i can uses in other performances. However i am not enjoying the majority of the skill buildong excersises as i feel that i have to concentrate on so many things at once and this stresses me out and causes me to forget about one aspect of childrens theatre and not perform as well as i can. I am trying hard to improve these skills but i am finding it difficult to improve all the skills so quickly.

16th october

Today we didnt do any work on our performance as such. We instead we focused on our story telling abilities and voices. We all had to tell a childs story that we made up on the spot. The story i made up was about a boy called Jake who lived in the woods and stumbled onto a house. When he went to look inside the door locked behind him and he was attack by two people who tied him to a chair and wouldnt let him go until he could give them a legit reason to why he is in their house. When he cant they force him to work until he passes out from being over work. When one of the people leaves to go get some food the other one feels sorry for Jake and lets him go. However when he goes to leave he runs into the person who went to get the food. The two people who own the house and made jake work fight and jake escapes when they are not looking.

I found this really hard to do as I had to focus on so many things at once. I had to focus on the way i spoke. Telling the story and coming up with the rest of the story. I did find this lesson helpful as it should me what i had to work on and how i need to improve so that i can perform better in childrens theatre.

character work

I play one of the three pigs. The pig I play is the youngest pig and is still really dependent of other people. Because he is the youngest he is often the target for his older brothers pranks and jokes and always has to go last in everything, for example using the mirror in the bathroom. When the Wolf first appears at the door step of Mother Pigs house, my pig jumps into the arms of his older brother in fear as his mother always told him stories of the Wolf and to stay away from him. This reflects the courage that my pig has. He doesn't. As such when he is told to go off and build his house he doesn't understand why and nearly cries because he thinks he has done something wrong so his mother doesn't want him anymore. He is also not very smart, this again causes him to be constantly mocked by his older brothers and his brother have to pick up the pieces when he has done something stupid. He is even stupid enough to build his house out of straw, Which clearly isn't a good idea. This reflects his intelligence and the his trust in other people that the pig has as he buy the straw off the Big Bad Wolf (who is in disguise) who tells him it will be perfect for building a house out of ( the wolf wants the pig to build his house out of straw so that it will be easy for him to later blow down. When the pig finishes his house he goes inside to make some food and the Wolf shows up at his door. The pig almost opens it but remembers what his mother told him and doesnt open the door to the Wolf which is a big step for him as he actually makes an educated decision that doesn't turn out bad for him. However it is in vain as his house is blown down and he has to run away to the next pigs house which is the pig who makes his house of sticks. This shows that my pig is closer to the second pig as he chooses to go to his house instead of the third pig. I really enjoy playing this character and will continue to develop him as our rehearsals move on.

Three little pigs

We have decided that thr performance we want to do for the schools we will visit is the three little pigs. I am playing the first pig, who builds his house out of hay. So far we have an opening where the mother pig played by Danny wakes up me, Harry and Jake. This is when we have a little audoence interaction and our characters see the children and are confused by what they are. Mother pigs explains they are people and says she is going to make us bacon pancakes for breakfast. The three pigs then go to get dressed and argue over the mirror. When they finish. We teach the children a song from The cartoon network show 'Adventure time' called bacon pancakes. After singing this the wolf shows up and that is all we have so far. I am really enjoying all the work we have done ao far. We have learnt how to talk to children and how to animate our bodies so that we entertain them. I am looking forward to continueing our work and eventually performing the show we come up.

18th september

For this lesson we were asked to come up with an idea for a performance that we could perform to small children. My idea was to do Treasure island which is about a child who lives in a tavern and gets given a treasure map. Pirates then attack the tavern to steal the map but the boy escapes with the map and meets friend of his who is an adult. The man and the boy then hire a boat and crew to go find the treasure. However it turns out the crew they hired were the pirates who attacked them and they try to steal the map. I think that this would be a briliant idea to do for our performance as it involves a secret treasure and pirates. On the childrens channel Cbeebies, on of the most popular shows is about pirates so i think the children would like it. In form today me and Danny were looking at shows we could do and we thought that finding nemo would be entertaining if we could do it right. In the lesson we all explained our ideas and we took a vote on what we would want to do. The idea that was picked was Finding Nemo. We were then split into 2 groups of 3 and were tasked with coming up with an opening for the piece. I was in a group with Jake.W and Harry, we decided to adapt the actual opening from the film and put it on the stage. I think that what we made wasnt that good as it wasnt that eye grabbing and young children would not be entertained. Also it would be too complicated for young children to understand. Also it is going to be hard to make the stage look like we our underwater however in another class for drama we are going to be making props so we can make the props for the show that we are planning to do.

polka theatre

polka Theatre is a children’s theatre aimed at children aged 0– 13. It is based in in Wimbledon. The theatre has two performance rooms, the main performance area has 300 seat and there is also a 70 seat studio specifically for performing to the youngest of their audiences. Polka theatre gets its funding from the London Borough of Merton and it is also a registered charity number 256979. Polka Theatre started life as a puppet touring company in 1967 under the Artistic Directorship of Richard Gill. The official Polka theatre opened on 20 November 1979 and it was the UK’s first theatre dedicated to only children. Polka theatre also has a scheme that offers free theatre tickets to disadvantaged schools so that pupils who would not get the chance to experience theatre because of financial difficulties. Over 100,000 children a year come to Polka and these Children can be as young as 9 months. Them and their families are lead into a colourful environment where simple stories are told in a big over the top way. The characters in these productions wear bright colours to help stimulate the children and keep them fascinated by the play as the babies that are watching might not understand the stories but will be entertained by the brightly coloured characters running around acting stupid.