Act 2 Scene 15, 16 & 17

Scene 15

Int he play, the actual scene consist of only one line, Seward apologizing from Lucy's body for failing her. Yet, our group wanted to make it a big spectacle, since it is killing off one of our major characters and she deserves proper send off. We thought it would be an excellent idea to really use Antonin Artaud's technique in this, by creating a ritual, a kind of a ritual that we haven't used in the play before. So we started by simply sitting in a circle, throwing ideas to each and discussing them. From the beginning, before even we had gotten close to devising this scene, I had had the idea of having sort of a rising rhythmic war call, similar to one exercise we had done in class. As I expressed this idea to the group, everyone seemed to agree, that this would be the most effective way to do it. We started by creating three different rhythms, that would start one by one in the scene, ending in a almost chaos like heart beat, representing the anger and intensity inside Seward. The beats and the movements within them also represented different sides of the play, and this scene. One of the rhythms mimicked the movement f a staking, while the other represented Dracula and his influence in the lives of these people.
    We decided that it would be good to start the scene with the 'Nani Nani' song, that has been sung in earlier scenes as well. We would start in black, singing the song with harmonies. We tried out singing it in choral or unison, but since Lucy created a harmony for us, it made the sound of this scene so much more effective, without crowding it too much. After the first verse, everyone would start coming on stage in a funeral march manner singing the verse again. For the march, we also tried have rhythmic stomping, but then figured that it was too slow and difficult to everyone to be on the same pace and still get to their places on time. Then, once in places, me and Sophie would start the ritual, having everyone follow, every group one by one. Seward walks in with the stake. As he reaches the middle stage, me and Sophie will add the last yells to the rhythm. Seward starts rising his stake, rhythm escalating, and once he straightens his arm into the air, everyone will stop. Seward approaches Lucy in silence, staking her. We can only hear the last screams of Lucy as she falls into eternal sleep. After this Seward will say his line and the light will fall into black.

Scene 16

  This scene is a simple bit in the play to break away from the horror that the rest of the play follows. It is very much Grice and Nisbett talking about Renfield and how it is a pity that he is dead. It is  a lighter moment before the big finale and after the large ritualistic scene of Lucy's staking, creating a moment for the audience relax a bit. It was suggested to us that the scene could be done in the style of the Chuckle Brothers, ahaving the two nurses throw Renfields body around, creating a very physical comedy scene.

Scene 17

   This is the last scene of the play, so of course we wanted it to be a big finale for our story. All of the chorus should be used, but at the same time giving the characters their proper conclusion, so at first I thought this scene would create a bit of a challenge for us. But as it turns out, we figured out the scene quite quickly, perhaps because the time running out, but also because we as a group had a clear idea for this scene from the start. Our tutor Andy really helped with this scene, directing most of it, but still giving us the chance to speak out our own ideas considering the scene, adding small touches to the chorus work.
   Since we had the possibility of using different kind of cloths in the play, and rather than building large sets, we decided to represent the walls and doors of castle Dracula with two large pieces of black cloth, run across the upper stage, help by the chorus members. Three bangs of the men trying to break the door open, and the chorus would move the cloths forwards and back, to represent the doors not bulging. Then, after Mina says her line "Stand aside, you men!" the chorus will run on the steps, going under cloths creating a horrifying pathway for the people to enter trough.
   After this Mina has her big monologue about her experience travelling, showing her new vampire-like side of her, showing that she is really still trapped and unfree of this curse.    As Van Helsing mentions the dawn arriving soon, the chorus people on the steps will first fall to the side, then get of the step as Dracula reveals himself at the top of the steps. The top of the steps have really been Draculas place throughout the whole play, symbolizing the fact that he is something mroe of a human, and almost god-like creatures. He sees more than we think and he is watching us all all the way trough the play. It is just natural for his last appearance to start from this highest step. We will have two chorus members on the sides. pulling a red cloth, creating the massive cloak of Dracula. The rest of the chorus members will take the black cloths and wrap it around Mina, showing the pull that Dracula has on her. Seward runs up the steps to revenger for his dead wife Lucy, only to be easily killed by Dracula. Rosy light floods the stage and Dracula fall down in agony, the chorus members following, This is when Jonathan starts to run up to finally stake Dracula, but Mina sprints up, takes the stake herself and kills Dracula, once and for all. The curse on Mina is broken and after a moment of hesitation, the two lovers are together again. They cross the hands of Seward and Dracula, forgiving him of his bad deeds and realizing, that Dracula was a victim himself. After this, Jonathan takes the red cloak of Dracula's and pulls it down the steps into a V shape. Van Helsing sets off to kill the vampire brides, chorus standing up. As Van Helsing kills the vampire brides, one by one, parts of chorus will scream in agony and fall to the ground. Jonathan and Mina fall to the bottom step to make love, and the play ends with white, pink and red petals falling(on the screen).
   

Act 2 Scene 13 & 14 - Development

Scene 13

Cemetery. The chorus members will go along the the stage to work as gravestones, looking down as a praying angel. Jonathan, Seward and Van Helsing will be  hiding behind the lower steps stage right. They are waiting for Lucy to come out, but before that they discuss the realness of vampires, since Seward cannot believe this to be true. He represents the fight of science and belief in unnatural things, an so he cannot internalize that Lucy could still, in a way, be alive. But as he is just saying how he doesn't believe the myth of vampire is supernatural, he stops mid sentence, because Lucy has emerged behind the audience with two children. The gravestones will rise their faces at this point, marking the arrival of Lucy the vampire. Seward is hexed by Lucy's tempting, but Van Helsing comes between them with a crucifix. Lucy recoils off-stage, leaving the two children two cry. Van Helsing uses them to convince Seward that it is of great importance that they slay Lucy, getting Seward to agree.

Scene 14

At the change of scene, part of the chorus will form a door, like in the beginning of act 1 scene 7, and the rest will go off-stage for the remaining of the scene. We decided to do this, because there is a lot of happening in this scene, and we felt as a group that chorus might just distract from the main action.
   Mina will still be on the steps, soundly asleep, until she hears the call of her dear friend, Renfield. So, she invites him in, only to find out that it Dracula changing his voice as the doors open. He has captured Renfield, who tries to attack Dracula with the last attempt to save Mina, but Dracula is not so easily stopped. With a single hand movement he flies Renfield of the steps, who will be lifted by the chorus member on stage and carried to stage right and laid down on the floor. After this the chorus people will go on the stage to become wolfs, observing. This is also when Florrie enters and Dracula has spokes to her about how he will have her tomorrow, but now it is time for Mina. He then suck at Mina before forcing Mina to suck on his blood from his wrist, continuing t with his speech and slowly turning Mina to his kind. Just as he is finishing, Jonathan runs out on stage with Seward and Van Helsing to stop Dracula, but he has already done his deed, affecting Mina and then running away. The scene continues with the characters talking about Mina's condition and later find out that she is able to see Dracula's where about by being hypnotized. They figure out that Dracula is travelling back to Transylvania and back to his castle. So, the group decideds to follow him and to get rid of him once and for all. Mina insist on coming with them, asking them to blindfold her, so that Dracula cannot see them coming. But first, it is their duty to kill Lucy and the task is given to Seward.

Act 2 Scene 9, 10, 11 & 12 - Development

Scene 9

In Bedlam. Nisbett and Grice are having a tea break, while Renfield has his attempts of warning them of Dracula. As he sais "Help us" the other lunatics will join him on the yells, only to be interrupted by Grice talking about the Bloofer Lady. At first, we didn't have much going on in this scene, until someone had the idea to have Lucy a.k.a. The Bloofer Lady come and lead the lunatics with her behind the audience. At the end of Grices speech, Lucy and the lunatics will come back on stage, scatter around, and with a simple hand movement Lucy does, the lunatics will fall down to the ground, dead.

Scene 10

Ticking sound starts. The chorus gets up from the ground to get to the positions for the next scene. Mina and Seward are up on the stage, Jonathan on the third step and Van Helsing on the second. Chorus will separate into three groups; two on either side of the steps in threes, mimicking the movements of the pendulum of a grandfather clock and one group recreating Jonathan's experience with the vampire brides

Red circles= The Chorus.
Chorus members middle of the floor stage are Jonathan of act 1, Lucy of act 1 and two other vampire brides.

   As Van Helsing hypnotizes Jonathan to remember the happenings at Castle Dracula, the ticking chorus members stop to stand in neutral. After Jonathan says in his speech "I am asleep." Me and the vampire brides and the front will slowly start walking towards each other. At the line "One, my head - aah!" Jade as a vampire bride will take my head and turn me so that I will be facing the audience. "Two, my legs, no!" Lucy will go to my right leg and as a bride caress it temptingly. "...the third one yes oh she down down down." Izzy will go in front of me and kneel down. "Her breath, sweet, too sweet..." She will start rising up to get ready to bite my neck. As this is happening I will also close my eyes and follow the speech lines accordingly, looking out and then down to Izzy. The line " I am six hundred years old, I am thousands of years old, I'm not just a little girl." will be repeated by the entire chorus, to make it as Jonathan is hearing the vampire say it again to him in his mind. As he yells "Mina!" the entire chorus will scatter around the front of the audience in a semi-circle to observe the rest of the scene as calmed down lunatics. The rest of the scene consist of discussion about Jonathans experience, Dracula and his influence, how to beat this creature and protecting Mina, since they know she would be the next victim. As the men and Van Helsing leave Mina to rest on the steps, they discuss The Bloofer Lady, revealing that she in fact is Lucy. After the scene ends, they will join the semi-circle as lunatics, leaving Mina alone on stage.

Scene 11

Renfield will run out from the other lunatics on to the stage, stating his little poem. He is soon chased by Grice and Nisbett, but Renfield kicks Grice in the groin to escape with the cheers of the other lunatics as his background music. Then the lunatics and the nurses will run off-stage as well, cheering.

Scene 12

Whilst having the faint cheers of lunatics on the background, Mina tries to pray, but failing. Then, a soft call of her name is heard. We had it so that the entire chorus would be a part of this repeating the lines "Mina", "Mrs Harker", "Listen", Let me in" and "Quick" in different loudnesses, times and ways to create a uncomfortable call of words lapping over each other. At the same time, the chorus will start walking in to stage, slowly and in a trans like manner. But as Mina forbids them with a loud yell, the chorus will stop and Renfield will jump out to warn Mina. But before he is able to finish, Brice and Nisbett will come out to capture Renfield again and take him back to his cell. At the same time the chorus will start backing down, disappearing into the darkness.

Act 2 Scene 6, 7 & 8 - Development

Scene 6

Red circles=Chorus

The chorus the stage will start miming as horses aligning themselves into two lines, on each sides of the highest two steps and start trotting in place, being almost cartoon like horses rather than real ones. This sets the style of this scene, which is almost too happy, since Jonathan in the scene has suppressed all the bad memories of Dracula, and Mina is just happy to be with her husband, unknowing of her sisters death.  Mina and Jonathan will sit on the top step bobbing up and down as if they would be in a carriage. The newly weds have a discussion about lunch and how excited Mina is to meet her sister Lucy. his scene seems not to fit in with the play, but I think it is there to show the extent of Jonathan's trauma but also just to make the audience feel worse once they find out about Lucy's death. During the scene, the people from scene 5 will remain on the floor, frozen in place.

Scene 7

We start with Mina and Jonathan getting off-stage and Lucy with Van Helsing joining the chorus. The chorus then creates a square shaped cell for Renfield after a smaal burst of manic laughter, since this scene is placed at Bedlam. Nisbett, separating from the cell goes down to Seward to have a discussion about Renfield, but after Seward excuses her and goes to talk to Renfield, she will join back into the cell
   The idea of the cell came from me, since I thought that it would a way to use the chorus in a way that doesn't take away from the action and the characters, especially Sewards feelings. I suggested that cell could start moving slightly, having the chorus members take a turn step, always replacing the previous chorus members place, going in rounds. The lines to change at would be "He is at hand.", "...zoophagous to boot.", "I don't want anything to do with souls.", "...vestigial or atrophied soul.", "My sould to wake.", "Life's all right.", "Or what? Drink?", "...burdened with a soul?" and "...'life' in the future?", which after the cells would just continue moving, as well as buzzing after Seward line " Flies!". I thought this would create tension and show the anger and aggressiveness that Seward is feeling inside of him. We tried it out and people thought it could work well if we rehearsed it well enough. We had a couple of extra rehearsals where we went trough this scene, but for some reason we didn't manage to get the movement right or look good, especially as we got to do it in the actual space, so Sophie suggested to change it. Instead of moving in a circle, we would create the cell with our hands. People in the edged will create the corners and the people in the middle will continue doing different hand movements on the same cues. This was a good change, since it was easy to learn, but also it worked better on the actual stage.
   As Seward would take Renfield out of the stage down to the floor to beat him, Nisbett will come back into the scene. This is when the chorus will stop moving their hands and stop the buzzing, and turn towards Seward, as judging his actions. We will stay in this position as Mina and Jonathan enter crying till the end of scene.

Scene 8

This the second big speech from Van Helsing, talking about Lucy's death and his King laughter that he will now laugh for the last time. It was evident that we wanted something happen with the chorus while Van Helsing is delivering her monologue, and so me and couple of other girls got the idea to have us play out the funeral of Lucy's. It would easy for us to carry Lucy down the steps and lay her down int he middle of the floor, gathering around her, since we were already up on the stage, having Van Helsing stay up on the steps giving her speech.


   We felt that we still needed to have a song to sing during the funeral, since it is kind of a tradition to do so. We started out by singing 'Rose Rose', but since it has been so used in previous performances, we needed to find a new one, something that is simple and easy to learn. I really felt that the song should be somewhat eerie, since we are making a more horrific play here and I found this Romanian lullaby. I didn't really think that the song would have had to be English, since in the early discussion we agreed that travel is one of the big themes in the play, and this song could symbolize the connection between England and Romania because of Dracula. Originally the group turned down this song, since they waned it to be an English one, but after Andy asked me to show it again, with Liams song, this was picked since it was much simple and worked well with the mood of the play. Of course, we wouldn't have to learn the entire song, but decided to only learn the last verse to have a dynamic short hymn to sing throughout the play. So, we would sing the song first once getting ready to lift Lucy and then again while carrying her down the steps. During Van Helsings speech, the chorus would continue humming the song, finishing the scene with singing the song once more. Then, we would burst into loud manic laughter and go into our Bedlam positions for the next scene.

Act 2 Scene 4 & 5 - Development

Scene 4

At the end of last scene, we had our chorus around the the audience, facing inwards to Dracula who has wrapped his cloak around sick Lucy. Of course Dracula isn't actually supposed to be there but we thought this would show the influence Dracula has on Lucy and how he has affected her already since his last visit.
   In this scene, Van Helsing will be performing a blood transfusion between Seward and Lucy, the two lovers. Since we hadn't used the chorus much in this act yet, we thought this could be a great change to Artaud's rituals to start of this blood transfusion, by having the chorus illustrate it. We started by thinking what a blood transfusion consist of, and of course it starts with having the needle put in your vein, to get the blood. Someone also pointed out, how nurses usually tap your hand, to get the vein visible and this inspired us. Each chorus member would start by presenting the elbow pit of one hand and tap their arm, flowingly, three times going from upper arm to wrist. Then everyone would do the same with the other arm and then, with a loud sigh and swinging of hands, would turn and change their place slightly. The sighing represents the satisfaction Dracula is getting from the blood transfusion, since all the blood Lucy receives, will also go to Dracula. The idea came much from the people(Liam, Max, Sophie, Lucy, and I) who went to the University of Chichester, where we saw a dance performance, where the dancers would come on stage, one by one, with this kind of a swinging and falling, like movement forward. So, when trying to think of a way for us to go into the blood transfer, me and Sophie remembered this and used the help of others to develop it further to fit our needs. We would repeat this four times until we end up in this position on stage:

Round circles represent the chorus members

At this point Van Helsing will tie a red ribbon on Lucy's and Seward's arms, connecting them. This red ribbon obviously represent the tube that the blood will transfer trough. Now, a heart beat will start  as the chorus has flopped down on their upper body. After four beats each side will start a movement up and down with the beat, showing the strength of Seward and Lucy, Seward getting weaker and Lucy stronger. There is four different stages, 4.energetic and powerful, 3. neutral, 2. tired but persistent and finally 1. absolutely exhausted and powerless. Each stage, or tension, will be repeated three times, by each side, but the stage right group will start in stage 4 going down to 1, representing the blood going out of Seward and his weakening existence, while stage left group is Lucy receiving the blood and gaining strength.

Poor drawing of the four tensions.

After the beats, Seward will fall to the ground, near fainting, and the chorus on his side will follow, staying down on the ground. For Lucy's side, Dracula will come and lead them across the floor up on the stage, showing that, it is really Dracula who is receiving the blood and gaining strength.
   The scene starts to talk about Lucy's well being and what they can do to help her get better. Van Helsing offer her an crucifix, which Lucy, already starting to turn into her vampireself, tries to disregard. In the end, Van Helsing convinces her to wear it. When Van Helsing suggests to put up some garlic flowers around the room, the chorus members on the floor will stand up with a white ribbon with flowers on it, and start walking in a slow march to scatter around the edges of the floor in front of the audience. We thought it would be nice to have us hum a song and we started by humming 'Rose Rose', but changed it since it is a very used song in performances done at the city college. Later, after already working on some of the future scene we decided to use this Romanian lullaby, since we will be using it in the future scenes as well, creating a continuity within the play. The flower ribbon will create a sort of barrier and protection for Lucy, protecting her from any outside forces.

A bit later, Florrie enters the scene and cunning Lucy uses her authority on her to give her the crucifix, but also take down the flowers. As Florrie does so, she will go and gather the ribbon from the chorus members, and the people holding the flower ribbon will fall down on their knees when their part of the ribbon is taken off, to show how the protection Van Helsing was trying to put up for Lucy, is now weakened and gone, letting the evil enter at any moment. As Florrie gatheres the ribbon, the maniacs on the upper stage will laugh showing their satisfaction of this action. As Florrie leaves, Lucy will welcome Dracula, coming from behind the audience, with open hands to make love to her. But instead of sweet relief, it soon turns violent and the scene in agonizing gasps from Lucy when she is bitten by Dracula once again.

Scene 5

Lights change. The chorus member still on the floor run up on the stage to join the other maniacs. Lucy is in the middle of the steps, seemingly dead. Then Florrie enters to discover the limp body of her miss. She calls for Van Helsing, and she and Seward rush in. Lucy collects her last human strength to wake up and ask for her dear sister Mina, only to collapse on the ground, weak of power. Seward goes to her, but Lucy's vampire side has taken over to try and fool Seward into 'a kiss', but Van Helsing sees trough her, preventing anything happening to Seward. She tell Seward to kiss Lucy on the forehead and only once, after which Lucy goes into eternal sleep. We decided not to have the chorus be a big part of this scene, since it was important to let Lucy's death have its own space and focus, leaving the chorus just observing the happening on the stage.

Act 2 Scene 1, 2 & 3 - Development

Scene 1

The act 2 starts with Van Helsing middle of the stage, with Lucy sleeping on the lower steps, where her bed in act 1 was. We first had Lucy come off-stage in the next scene, but thought, that it would be more convinient to have her on the stage right at the beginning. This scene was mostly planned by Andy and Jenny themselves, whilst everyone else was working on other scenes, so I wont get into too much details of the development of this scene.
   The entire scene consists of Van Helsings monologue, where she talks about her everyday routine followed by the contents of Seward's letter. She starts to prepair for his trip to England, by packing his suitcase, which is shown by Jenny miming, since we have decided as a group to only have props that are absolutely necessary. It would be difficult to have all the props present, since we are all on the stage most of the time, so it would only be awkward to have us fishing out props every two minutes from off-stage or under the steps. As Van Helsing finishes off her monologue, she will step off-stage from her position at the middle of the stage.

Scene 2

Lucy talks to Florrie about her cut off hair, in her near death existence. We follow these two women discuss the hair and then when Florrie starts reciting the letter sent from Mina to Lucy, the chorus will start walking in from all sides of the stage, and behind the audience, in a trans-like manner, as if "they were moths and Lucy was a bright light". We stop at the edges of the audience, creating a sort of circle around the stage and the scene between Lucy and Florrie. We stand there, observing in quiet, until this bit of the conversation:
LUCY. Oh yes... Are we in the madhouse? Maniacs start laughing
FLORRIE. Asylum. Stop laughing. Stoneyfields Asylum for the sick.
LUCY. The madhouse. Start laughter again.
FLORRIE. All the world's a madhouse. Stop and remain in silence for the rest of the scene.
   As the scene ends, the chorus will turn into manic children, playing war games with each other until killing each other off and falling to the ground. Jade came up with this idea, to contrast the quiet chorales beginning of the act 2.

Scene 3

This is quite a simple scene as well. All the maniacs will be on the ground, playing dead, while Grice has his big speech while kicking Renfield with Nisbett observing. They are on their cigarette break talking about how Renfield escaped and how they found him near Carfax calling his master. "Master, master, I'm here to do your bidding. Now that you're near me, do not pass me by." this line Grice is supposed to be quoting from Renfield, but we decided it would be much more effective to gave the chorus whisper line in an eerie welcoming sound. At the end of the scene, the two nurses stub out their smokes and leave the stage. This is when Dracula comes out of the shadows and lifts up Lucy to sitting in her bed. This is also when the chorus will rise from their position to face Dracula and get ready for starting scene 4.

Act 1 Scene 12 & 13 - Development

Scene 12

At the end of previous scene, the chorus will turn back into lunatics and run up to the stage to observe the next Bedlam scene. We decided that we would not have the usual scattered Bedlam, since we thought it would be more convenient since the next scene would start in a line on the stage, but also brings a contrast to previous Bedlams scenes, really focusing on the changing moods of the desperate Renfield. The scene consist of the nurses strapping Renfield down for Seward to give him his doses of medication. Renfield, trying to warn him for what is to come, is ignored. He has a speech about how "he" or Dracula will come and "she" Lucy will let him in, warning Seward but also wanting him to suffer in some level, just like Renfield himself has suffered. At the end of his speech the chorus repeats the line " That'll get you!" after Renfield. The chorus transition to their places along the edge of the stage by becoming whirlpools. At first I was supposed to join them at this point, but after planning out the entire last scene of this act, we realized that me and Bella would be better to come off-stage when needed, since we have long red cloth too sort out before coming on.

Scene 13

This scene is very much about Lucy becoming sick and showing her first sign of being under Draculas influence. This is probably why our tutor Andy wanted it to be a very naturalistic scene throughout, having the chorus simply sitting on the stage in a straight line, legs crossed just observing what is happening in the scene. Seward bring weak Lucy to the middle step, to her bed, where Florrie has been making sure it is as comfortable as possible. After this Seward soon leaves, leaving the two women to discuss about Lucy well being and dreams she has been seeing. After this they talk about Florries sweetheart and agreeing that Florrie will get this night and the next morning off, since she can that way properly say goodbye to her Jem. After this Seward enter again with a bouquet of red roses. Florrie will start giving the roses to the chorus members, while they continue the conversation. As Florrie exits, Lucy begs of Seward to stay with her for the night, but as a true gentleman would, Seward refuses and leaves Lucy alone for the night. 

   Lucy goes to sleep. Suddenly she wakes up to see the moon from her window and rising from her bed. She open the window and says arms wide: "Come in. Come to me, my love. Come in" This is when Dracula comes from the top of the stage and goes to Lucy. The chorus members follow him to create a sort of a staircase along the either sides of the steps. As Dracula picks up Lucy and carries her up the steps, the chorus will have ripped the petals of the roses and throw them as Dracula passes. This is when me and Bella come on stage from either side of the stage without red cloths in a march like manner, give the end of the cloths to Lucy and Dracula as we reach them and then go down the steps, spreading the cloths symbolizing the blood that Dracula is now drawing from poor Lucy. Lights go down to blackness. End of Act 1. 

Act 1 Scene 10 & 11 - Development

Scene 10

This scene is the beginning of the storm, storm that Dracula uses to his advantage to travel to England but also have his first encounter with Lucy. Since the scene is actually set in three different places at once, I suggested what if we had the chorus create a triangle between the three different places; Bedlam, Heartwood and Castle Dracula. It it very much the connection these three places have that inspired me with this, but also it was pointed out to me that the chorus sort works as chains, forcing these them to be connected against their will. All of the three people are somehow trapped, Jonathan forced to stay at castle Dracula against his will, but also for a long time his fear, Renfield being held down in a madhouse, and Mina alone not knowing of his husbands whereabouts, trying on a wedding dress she might not ever use. The chorus, sitting down cross legged, will be making the sounds of the storm, rocking slightly like a boat in a storm would.
   Renfield is singing a sweet song about mad Tom as Jonathan wakes up to his hell, after the incident with the vampire brides. Mina, at Heartwood, is praying of her future husbands safety. As Jonathan escapes, I will stand up on the highest step and then jump off-stage. We tried once having me join the chorus, but it seemed somewhat silly and confusing, so as a group we decided that it would be best for me to stay off-stage until a better time to join the chorus.

   For her song, Sophie found it hard to figure out a tune for the song Renfield is singing, since the actual song was hard to find. So, during one of our extra rehearsals, when me and Max were running lines with each other, we took a break to look for a song to help out Sophie. We found this song above, and felt that the melody was quite sweet but also easy to learn. The lyrics are not the same as the piece in our play, but when we tried it our with Sophie, the poem seemed to work with this melody just as well. With Andy, Max helped Sophie to learn the tune to work as a start for this scene.
   As Mina says "Please, please, please..." Florrie and Lucy, and Nisbett and Grice will get up from the triangle to put Mina and Renfield each on their own straitjackets. Though, Mina's jacket isn't a literal one, but her wedding dress. This is also when the chorus will start to rise slowly, keeping up the whaling sound of the wind and rocking of the stormy sea. After awhile, Lucy starts wondering around, having Dracula come down and wrapping her to his cold arms. Mina goes to look for Lucy, who has been sleepwalking. Lighting strikes and we can hear Lucy scream and that is when Dracula lets go of Lucy and let her go back her sister. Before we had Dracula go back off stage, but then realized that he is needed in the transition soon, so rather than leaving the stage, he will act as he is hiding from Mina as a dog or shadow in plane sight. This is when Renfield starts yealling "Masterfaster" louder and louder, Chloe, our Renfield for the second act, will get up and the two Renfields will join in on the last lines together, both siding Dracula, and then collapsing to the ground to their knees. There is is a bang of ship crashing to shore and everyone falls to the ground.
   When the storm is over, Dracula will get Izzy and Lucy up from the ground to the top step to face away from the audience, and then walks off stage.

Scene 11

The scene starts by Florrie getting up and starting to clean up around her. As Mina start getting up Florrie tell the story about the storm and a ship, where apparently everyone was found dead. After the monologue, Lucy has the line " And the air this morning is so sweet you'd think it'd never get dark again." the two Lucy's of the show(Izzy and Lucy) will stand up and face each other to say this line in unison. Then, after a deep breath, as if Lucy breathing the life out of Izzy, Lucy turns around to face the audience and the other two women on the floor, and Izzy collapses. This is a quite a big turn in the play, since it represent the change in Lucy's character, pre-Dracula and post-Dracula. Lucy then repeats the line coming down the step too join the two other women. After this the scene remains quite naturalistic, the discussion of the three women remaining mainly stage left and centre, only having Jade rising her hand to give the letter from Jonathan to Mina. As we found out that Jonathan is actually safe, the chorus will start noticing this and wondering about his escape, as if it would be Dracula himself finding out about Jonathan escape.

Act 1 Scene 9 - Scene Development

  This scene was a bit of a challenge for us to create, since from the beginning we wanted it to be one of the scenes that would get the audience to wet their pants, but also make them awe in wonder. Even though the vampire brides themselves do not have a big role in the play, nor did they have in the books or movies, they still play an important part when thinking about the character of Jonathan, but also the power Dracula has. The brides are Count Dracula's turned-into-vampires-brides, who have been under his influence, for who-knows-how -long, and have become these extremely sexual predators, thirsty for blood. 

   The vampire brides really bring out the suppressed temptations Jonathan has within him, want for lust and sex. This is seen in the previous scenes as well, but it seen as friendly talk between two men or lust for ones own future wife. Scene 9 though show the twisted suppressed perversion about Lucy and the extenct he is ready to go. He wants them and is willing to trade his freedom for 'a hint of a kiss', or in other words, a blow job. 

   The scene starts with quite a straight forward part, where Jonathan is said to be shaving his beard. We thought that it would be clever and also consistent to our 'no props unless absolutely necessary' approach to have the shaving done with the two Jonathan, me and Max, mirroring each other, as they already earlier in the play in the first scene with the two Lucy's. It was important that the gestures we did with this part were big and clear for the audience to understand what exactly are we doing, and it took us some time to perfect the shaving, especially when Jonathan notices Dracula behind him, but does not see him in the mirror image. The timing of the turn is difficult to perfect, since we cannot see each other any longer, but with setting a certain count or time with the turn it should look great on stage. So, as Jonathan is scared by the realization, that Dracula isn't exactly human, he drops the mirror in horror. With this we tried Max just collapsing to his place on the steps, but later realized that Max is actually needed to come on off stage in a little bit, and so we soon changed it to him running off-stage as the mirror breaks, just like Lucy's mirror image does in the first scene when Mina enters.  After this the scene takes on a bit of a naturalistic turn, since the brief conversation with Dracula and Jonathan is done only them up on the stage, alone on the entire arena. I feel this focus towards the relationship of these two characters is important, to show how Jonathan fears Dracula, but hasn't yet fully accepted the fact that Dracula is a far more dangerous creature than just a mere human. 

After deciding the frame of the beginning of the scene, we focused on the lifts planned to carry out. this idea came from our tutor, Andy, which everyone agreed to be the best way to make this scene stand out. It also would be very Artaudian, creating a symbolic meaning with the lifts rather than showing literally what we  After the lines of the brides, talking about who should get to feed on Jonathan first and Jonathan asking who these creatures were, we would execute the lift, representing the, well, sex and lust between Jonathan and the vampire brides, mainly the vampire mockery of Lucy. More about creating the lifts in my movement blog->

    Perfecting and creating the lifts took us unbelievably long time, forcing us to do extra rehearsals multiple times. I feel, that we wouldn't have needed so many extra rehearsals for just this scene necessarily, but what I found was, that almost always there was someone missing, who was a vital part of the lifts. It was frustrating to first convince people to stay after classes to rehearse, just to find out people who were needed, would not show up. Luckily we were able to find time to practise the lift, even if we only had ten minutes between rehearsing other scenes to go over the lifts and get comfortable with them. 

  Now that we had the 'main spectacle' of the scene planned out, all we had to do was to think what can we do to lead up to it, since as far as we had gone in our scene so far was at the end of Jonathan's and Draculas discussion. Some one realized, that since the lifts are done at the bottom floor, we should have Jonathan end up at the bottom of the stairs at the end of the conversation, which made much sense, since when Jonathan first enters the Castle Dracula, he is considered to be inside when he steps on the first step. So, after Dracula hands Jonathan the key, I as Jonathan would rush down the steps to open the door, only to realize there are wolfs outside, making him too afraid to leave. This way there would be no awkward transition for Jonathan to get down for the lift. As for the brides, I had the idea of having them enter in sort of a 'bridal march' on to the stage, by having them come in off-stage, rather than having everyone waiting on stage. I thought that everyone could separate to two sides of the stage, brides and the men, and as Jonathan is left on the lowest step, sobbing for Mina, the brides and the men can reveal themselves with the bridal march, pairing up in the middle and continuing to go down the step, past Jonathan and then separate to two sides of the lower stage. This way we get to use a ritual(the bridal march) connecting to Artaud and his philosophy in theatre as well as make an effective entrance for the brides and show their higher status on stage. We wanted to play on this, showing the power of these monster women and the group thought of perhaps doing so by having the brides kill their 'spouses', also giving Jonathan the change to fear them, making the fact that he ends up lusting for the brides even more disturbing.

   Since the brides are predators, after Jonathan's blood rather than himself, we thought that it could be good to have the brides circling around Jonathan after killing the other men. This way we could have focus on the lines they say, but also show their intentions and even animal like behavior. I really thought of them the same way as the wolf's in the opening of the play. They start by circling their victim, making sure they cannot escape and then attack. But in the case of the vampire brides, I felt they were in it for the fun as well, playing with their to-be-supper a little before attacking. While ringing Jonathan, the brides can tempt him by light touches, caressing him and over all keeping their lustful eyes on him even if they wonder else where on the stage. But after Jonathan asks for who they are, all of the brides would be around him, playing with his unknowing mind. To the get to the actual lifts, I thought that perhaps Jonathan could simply try get away from the vile brides with last of his powers of fear, before giving into the temptation ergo the lifts. I really was inspired by the mix of fear and temptation that Jonathan has in this video, taken of Dracula the musical. He tries to escape from brides, only to be faced with another one, taking longer and longer to turn his back on them, when finally giving up to his lust.
   While in the air, Jonathan, seeing the 'Vampire Bride Lucy', he gives his key to freedom. After the lifts we decided the vampire Lucy and Jonathan are put down on either sides of the staircase on the floor, giving the brides opportunity to show their talents of seduction, luring Jonathan into their cold hands. Just as Vampire bride Lucy is about to fasten her teeth on poor Jonathan's neck, Dracula comes out on the stage and down the steps, stopping the brides. As Dracula leads Jonathan into 'safety', he will throw a rugged bag, that will evidently have the baby in it. Of course there won't be an actual baby inside, but we will rather get the effect from sound effects.
   The challenge with this I think was having the girls of our class become the seductive but dangerous Vampire Brides and being able to truly manifest the predatory like creatures within their spoken lines. They cannot be straight forward scary, but have that whisper like seductiveness in them, since they are trying to lure Jonathan into giving the key to them. We thought that it would be very effective to have most of the lines be spoken in a chorus, since we do not only have three brides, but seven. This can bring on an element of myth and dream like touch, since I am not sure if Jonathan believes in them at first. 

   

Act 1 Scene 7 & 8 - Development

Scene 7

   Now, scene 7 is a bit complicated one, since it is one of the longest, if not the longest scene in the play, but it also introduces us to Count Vlad Dracula. It is a long scene with a lot of it only being conversation between Jonathan and Dracula, but as we do not want the scene drag on but rather keep the audience on their toes, we have added Artaudian factors with the chorus, whilst keeping the acting between me and Greta quite naturalistic. 

    Right from the beginning, from the moment we heard about our staging, we knew that Draculas first entrance would be from the top of the staircase. But we wanted to create the eeriness of Castle Dracula first and so someone had the idea to have the chorus run up the strairs as bats, but then turn into a door and gargoyles.  Me, as Jonathan, would run off into the audience after the bats rather than going up on to the stage and walk out from there to face the doors middle of the floor. After my first line "Count Dracula!" the doors would open, creaking and then joining the gargoyles to as to bow to their master, and two wolf like creatures would run out towards Jonathan, only to separate and split on either side of the floor, in front of the audience. This idea came from Sophie, since it would scare Jonathan, but also give Dracula the chance to manifest himself at the top of the steps. Dracula wouldn't move from his place, until Jonathan has stepped on the first step to greet him. In the book and the movies there is a sort of blue fire, that separates the castle from the outside world, a sort of line to cross. The step is that line, and it means that now Jonathan is in Dracula's hands, under his influence, and we decided to show this to the audience by having the gargoyles sigh in relief. Now Dracula can come down the steps freely to greet his new guest. As Jonathan mentions that there was wolves on his journey, we could have the howling of wolves heard on the background, as if Jonathan is remembering the voices of these beasts. 

   As the conversation goes on, Dracula introduces Jonathan to a feast, supper. As he clicks his fingers, the gargoyles would separate to join the two wolves on the floor. Michelle had the great idea to have her and Jade work as a chair for Jonathan, showing the hospitality of Dracula. After Jonathan gets up, these two would join the rest of the chorus. The conversation between Jonathan and Dracula continues down the steps and it turns to Mina trough discussion about Carfax. At this point Jonathan will fish out photographs out of his pocket. Someone thought that it would be clever to create one of the pictures with Mina, Lucy and Florrie with the actors and as we tried it out, it worked brilliantly. This way, Dracula could also wonder in the picture, directing his focus to each woman at a time. This also shows the powers Dracula has, in a away he can go in and out of pictures, even though he cannot himself be shown in them. 

   When the two gentlemen start discussing the people of Romania, Dracula mentions his country being a whirlpool, we planned the chorus to turn into whirlpools themselves. In the end though, I feel that we sort of lost this part of the chorus work since almost right away they turn into fighting warriors, to show the bloodshed in the history of Romania that Dracula talks about. As the battlers fall down to the ground and Dracula step to walk among them, he talks about how in his country "the grass is flesh". I thought this was a very strong image we have created on the stage, since the ground Dracula is walking will be made out of dead bodies. After this, the chorus gets up and turn into wolfs again, to be in a semi-circle along the audience. The next chorus bit is when Jonathan takes out the crucifix he got from a farmers wife and Dracula hisses and recoils. At this time the whole chorus will work as some what parts of Dracula, covering their faces and hissing. Then, after failing to convince for Jonathan to throw away this crucifix, Dracula starts talking about the letter Mr. Hawkins had asked Jonathan to give him. Dracula speaks how Jonathan should write letters to anyone he feels need the information to know that he will stay in the castle Dracula for a month. The group had the idea to have Dracula sort of controlling Jonathan, as a puppeteer would a puppet, writing this letter, to show the audience again some of Dracula's powers of manipulation. Jonathan, of course is very taken a back after snapping out of hypnosis, but Dracula tries to explain that he wants Jonathan for conversation, to improve his English skills. He explains that his English is learned from book, when the chorus will turn into books, by standing still in the line. "I am pressed by the throng of your London crowds" and the chorus will start walking on the floor as citizens of London. "Books are good." and the chorus will go back in place as books and then wolfs.
   Yet, Jonathan is not planning to stay, but Dracula is persistent to having him as his guest as long as possible. He starts talking about how Jonathan would change his mind, but is interrupted by howling of the wolfs. 

    

   This leads to Jonathan telling a story of how wolfs ringed their coach on his journey to the castle. He has found his way to second lowest step and is surrounded by the chorus, growling as wolfs. As he talks about a girl he comforted during this trip, teaching him words "Ordo. Pokol. Stregioca. Vrolok. Vlokoslac." the chorus will repeat these words in a sort of a growl, as some sort of demon would. This really creates the image of the fear Jonathan was going trough in that moment, and what he is probably feeling in that moment as well. But before these demon like wolfs have the opportunity to do anything to Jonathan, Dracula comes and guides off the wolves, leading Jonathan up the steps on to the middle of the stage to deliver the last lines. 

Scene 8

As Dracula exits in the previous scene, Jonathan will fall back to the first of the upper steps. The chorus will run up on to the stage to observe the next scene, and some of them hold Jonathan down, representing the powers of castle Dracula and how Jonathan really is trapped in it. Scene 8 itself is pretty straight forward, and the acting and actions of the three main characters in the scene, Mina, Florrie and Lucy, will be very naturalistic, having the loonie sonly observe them. But we also wanted to bring some of Brecht into this scene, since it dabbles into the fact at that Mina and Lucy are more priviliged than Florrie. Mina talks how they should all be one big happy family and to have Florrie addressing her as Mina, rather than Miss, without realizing how much damage she is doing and how little she really is helping. I and Sophie thought that it would be a good idea to have the crazy people repeating  Florrie everytime she says "Yes miss" or "No miss", but also whispering "You're not part of the family", almost in a mocking way. Otherwise, there is only one more chorus work, which doesn't even involve the entire chorus, but only a few and Jonathan. When Lucy comes along and says how that there has been no letters from Jonathan, I will sprint up from sleep, to show how Jonathan wants to be saved and wants back to his Mina, but is simply help back and put back down by the monsters controlled by Dracula. At the end of scene, the loonies will briefly get into manic laughter but at the same time run off-stage to get ready for the next scene.

Act 1 Scene 4, 5 & 6 - Development

Scene 4

This is our second Bedlam scene, so creating the basic blocking of it is pretty simple. As in scene 2, the first scene in Bedlam with Renfield, we will have Renfield on the middle of the stage, with loonies scattered around the floor and the stage. We thought that, since the stage directions tell that Renfield is acting some what similar to a dog, to have all the different groups of lunatics have different characteristics dogs have; sniffing, whining, barking softly, and panting. We did this very clearly in couple of the first rehearsals, but seem to have lost it the further down we went with the rehearsals. There is still a hint of dog in the loonies, but is much more turned down to bring more focus on the action that is going on with Renfield and Nurse Grice. 

   This scene introduced Nurse Grice, the sadistic nurse at Bedlam. As a sadist, Grice enjoys to see others suffer and he likes to inflict pain on others, Renfield being the obvious target in this scene. But with Grice giving Renfield his medicine, Renfield spits the mouthful on Grices face, making him obviously angry, but also giving him the chance to do his worst to Renfield. As Grice says " You stupid stupid cur! Kick him. Kick him from dawn to dusk and back again!" Grice and another nurse(in this case Yunusa) will lift up Renfield by the arm and take him down the steps. Then the struggling Renfield is thrown down on the floor to deliver his monologue. We thought that the lift would be good to show the hard handiness Grice, and the other nurses, have on the patients and highlight the fact that Grice really is a sadist.
   On Renfields monologue, where he talks about the coming of his master, we really got the chance to use the lunatics to our advantage. We had had discussions about the loonies earlier, being different sides of Renfield. So, with this monologue I thought of the idea to have the lunatics mirroring Renfield actions, also getting more movement to the scene. As the speech starts all the lunatics will be on their knees. On the line "He'll punish you!" everyone will point forward and on the next sentence "My master is at hand." the loonies will grab the wrist of the hand they just point with. When Renfield start to talk about following his masters every command, we will bow down in unison. There is also bit where we will look up right to the moon and as Renfield finishes saying: " pretty ones, how they do flutter!" We will all have picked an imaginary bird of the floor and attack it with our mouths. The last chorus thing for this speech is the final line "that do quicken the heart, that give a little flutter..." everyone will say it in their own crazy way. This will be contrasted by the last line of this scene, where Renfield proclaims Draculas coming, by all the lunatics being completely quiet just watching Renfield. Then the madness will again slowly rise, leading us to the next scene.  

Scene 5

   This scene is located in the gardens of Heartwood house, and since there is quite many talking characters in the scene, we thought that we could have the loonies could simply be in the line on the upper stage, observing the happenings in the garden, reacting to some lines in slight laughter or crazy mumbling. Especially lines like "Are you in a position to take a little dictation?" by Jonathan or Lucy's line " Very salty champagne!", that have some kind of sexual meaning or innuendo  within them.
   The scene will star by I as Jonathan and Sophia as Mina getting into place on the step, set out as the picnic area straight away from being lunatics. as more characters enter, we thought that they could simply walk in from the line of lunatics. Originally, we had positioned Jonathan at the top of the first set of step, right in front of the lunatics,  but then after getting notes from Andy that it is a awkward position for Mina, who Jonathan is taking a picture of, since she was sitting on the steps in front if him. So we changed it to have Jonathan rather stand stage right on the floor miming to take a picture of Mina, and moving then to the steps to carry out the dictation-part. Here, Jonathan walks behind Mina to cup her breast, to show the attraction between the future husband and wife. This is interrupted by Mrs Manners and so Jonathan continues to state his letter to Count Dracula until the gong strikes, that is created by the crazy people. At the same time, Lucy and Seward will share a secret kiss, which we will 'hide' from the eyes of Mina and Jonathan by having Mrs Manners and Florrie cross each other in front of the lovers, keeping their affection to each other as a secret. After this we follow a discussion between the four people and Florrie who is serving food for them. Jonathan has his lustful eyes on Florrie, but I have talked more about this in my character objectives and development, so I will not go into detail in this post.
 As the conversation goes on, we have Lucy tell about hers and Sewards swimming trip, which is when Andy thought it would change up the sitting in the scene by having Lucy stand up and direct her story more to the audience. Seward also should get up, creating a lovely moment between these two characters. Unfortunately, Mina upsets Lucy, who then runs out off-stage. Seward then follows him, after revealing about their fresh engagement. The next part, also more discussed in my character creation, is the last part of this scene really showing the true colours of Jonathan. He is almost begging Mina to marry him sooner and then changes his action to get her to sleep with him. This ends with Mina denying Jonathans affection, then changing her mind to let him sleep with her if he does not go to Romania to meet with Count Dracula. At this point, Jonathan puts his career in front of his loved one, ending the scene with Mina rushing to the lunatics angry with Jonathan. As the scene ends the lunatics will get down from the stage to create Bedlam once again.

Scene 6

This Bedlam scene starts with all the lunatics asleep, an idea presented to us by Siou, to bring a bit variation into the Bedlam scenes. This scene introduces us the second half of the nurses, Nisbett, a masochist(a person who has masochism, the condition in which sexual or other gratification depends on one's suffering physical pain or humiliation.). Renfield at first doesn't seem to like Nisbetts presence and tries to sing over her. At this point we have our lunatics waking up and joining in on the singing. This doesn't work though, and Nisbetts keep talking, handing Renfield his soup, but Renfield throws it back at her making all the lunatics laugh and Nisbett run off in shame(probably enjoyed shame, but still). After this, Renfield and the other lunatics turn to play as spiders, seeming to try and catch spiders as well. On the line " See, I think it's not nice, eating dead things" everyone does this hand movement, created by Siou, where we swipe the floor first with our wrist, then pretending there is blood running down it, licking it as it trickles down. Also, after the line " If it moves, eat it" everyone attacks the floor, eating something from it. The last line of the scene " Come in to my parlour, said the spider to the fly" we all repeat together. This line obviously refers to the next scene, where unknowing Jonathan enters Draculas castle. From the spiders on the floor, the lunatics then turn into bats and fly into starting positions for scene 7.

More about the creation of spiders and bats in my movement blog.

Using the practitioners

Antonin Artaud

   Artaud was the practitioner that we followed mainly for this unit, studying his 'Theatre of Cruelty' and 'Lancing the Abscess'. He saw that all of us have a double inside of us, the 'perfect version' without any restrictions and taboos set by the society and culture. Abscess is  all these perversions we have inside that we hide or are put to hide because of pressure, which doesn't let us reach our true potential. The theatre of cruelty is his way of lancing the abscess or to help us release the double by creating an extraordinary performance taking the actors and the audience to their limits of understanding. 

   We see this especially in the Act 1, where we used a lot of the chorus, stretching us as actors to our limits by putting our energy at 100% in every single scene, but also making the audience uncomfortable with all these different stimulants going on. Each character also represents well the different parts of Artaud's view, for example Renfield who is the only one truly releasing his trouble, being free from taboos and constrictions made by any authority. On the other hand, Jonathan, and many of the other characters, hides their temptations, in the fear that it will be a sin. These really show the two different sides of Artaud's philosophy. 

   In Act 2 we have focused more in using his techniques, for example rituals in scene 15, where Seward stakes Lucy. Artaud believed, that language constricts us and doesn't tell everything we need to know, creates confusion. So, in this scene we only have line, but a whole ritual to show how Seward is feeling and show the intensity of the scene. 

   By using Antonin Artaud, we haven't only made a scary show, a performance that leaves the audience tired and overwhelmed, full of questions, but also an understanding, even they don't fully internalize. I've seen a lot of class mates open up during this units, when they have been forced to stretch their emotions and energy every single day. It certainly was a roller-coaster, but it also taught us to use ourselves as a whole, and make ourselves uncomfortable to create something beautiful. 

Stanislavski

We've really used Stanislavski's teaching in this play as well. We didn't use him during class, but had him by our side when creating and developing our individual characters at home. I think having Stanislavki's methods as the base to your character and interpreting the play is very important, since it will give you a simple, but round understanding of their objectives, wants and views. We also used naturalism as a contrasting factor in our play, so that all of the scenes would not be full chorus spectacles, probably leaving the audience confused and bored. High energy all of the time can be just as dull as throughout naturalism.

Brecht

Brecht isn't really one of the practitioners that we have been using throughout, but there is sings of him in the play, and so I thought that he would deserve a bit of explanation. Brecht focuses on politics, and in Liz Lochhead's Dracula this is seen with the character Florrie. Florrie isn't a character in the original novel or the movies, but she was created to highlight the position of the Westerman sisters. There is even a scene(Act 1 Scene 8) that is dedicated to show the class difference between these three women and how Lucy and Mina can be somewhat silly with their problems and every day lives. 

Jonathan Harker

Initial research for Jonathan

Jonathan Harker is the first person you meet in the novel, following his story as he goes and meets Count Dracula at his castle. It his diary entries and letters that we read and learn the first things about our cast of many characters in the book. And that is about it. I personally didn't find Jonathan the most interesting character in the book, rather a dry gentleman, who tends get upstaged by any other character in the scene. He is describes "quiet" and a "businessman-like gentleman" by Seward, which simply does not give me much to work with, especially since the character of Jonathan in the play I found to be very sociable and charming. But I feel it is for a meaning in the book that Jonathan is this way. He is there to contrast brave and extraordinary Van Helsing.
   Jonathan is supposed to be the image of the perfect Victorian man, but I haven't found this to be very difficult for me to internalize with Jonathan in my acting. So I've started to look at it in a different way. What if  the'image of the perfect Victorian man' is what Jonathan wants to be and everyone to see, but inside he is something different, a man full of temptation, perversions and selfishness. He is quick to defend himself and his believes, notice especially in Act 1 scene 5, where he almost insist on coming into Mina's bed, even though he probably knows that it would not do good for her reputation. He then defend his career, leaving his future wife behind and not supporting her wishes. He is also quite a perverted man. I do not think it was uncommon for men of this era to think women sexually and have chats wit their friends about 'delicious secretaries', but to want ones future wife's little sister? I think that is a bit twisted. Jonathan obviously cares for Lucy, but the way he talks to her and about her " Lucy, my pet..." " Sweet kid...", "the first few days in this country I saw my sister-in-law in every other serving girl that brought me supper - it was very disconcerting..." shows that Jonathan has thought Lucy in a  different way than just 'a little girl'. Also, the fact that he so easily falls into vampire Lucy's arms is evidence for this perversion.
   So, with Jonathan's character I almost made him overly charming and proper, to hide his inner-self, what follows very much the Artaudian approach. He might be even a bit too eager to socialize, since most of his life he has probably spent studying and reading books to become a solicitor. Jonathan holds himself in a straight posture, moving with sort of a slight confident bounce as he walks. To show the fact that he has something to hide, something he doesn't want people to see, I made him a bit fidgety, straightening his jacket or fixing his vest if something bother him or someone says something that comes a bit too close. Also, to make him  a bit more man-like I have lowered my voice, but hopefully it won't sound too humorous. His tempo is not the middle but a bit higher, his focus being direct, but quite quick to change.

Interpretation of the play

  For, and the class on basis of our discussion, it was very clear from the beginning that Liz Lochhead has made some of the major themes based againts what the original novel by Bram Stroker tried to convey. Bram Stroker used heavy religious symbols to show the readers the righteous path in life, Dracula representing our temptation into sin, especially lust. Now, Liz Lochhead has turned this around and uses lust, temtation, the hunt, and even insaty as major themes in the play and especially brought out the theme of suppression into play. I think the play is an excellent commentary how the most insane person can actually be the one making the most sense, represented by Renfield, and how it is ourselves and our inner wants that tempt us into to doing the things we consider as sin, especially shown by Jonathan and Mina, who both give into temptation, but also accept each others deviations in the end. Lochhead has also brought in an political side into the play by creating the character Florrie, who wasn't in the original novel at all. This is to show the difference between the classes at that time, but also highlight how priviliged the main set of characters - especially with Mina and Lucy - and how some of their problem might seem bigger than they actually are. This shows a certain sympathy to these lower class characters, unlike Bram Stroker who ignored them or took them as humour. 

   Even thought our main focus within this unit is the teaching of Antonin Artaud, this play, in my opion, will be a combination of styles, to create the effect we want with it. It will also in the end follow Artuad's theatre of cruelty, since it keeps the audience on their toes and doesn't stick to just one style, which could get repetative and expectable half way through the play. There is some obvious scenes(Lucy's staking, Vampire brides) where Artaud's rituals could be used very effectively to create a eerie and threatening scenewithout using any verbal communication, which Artaud saw as one of the biggest restriction in our society. Using everyone in the chorus in every scene as well will a good way to make the play an overwhelming amount to process for the audience, almost torturing even them during the course of the performance that follows Artaud's philosophy as well. Taking in consideration, that one of the major themes in the play is suppression, Artaud truly was the perfect practisioner to choose for us to study, since his main philosophy was surrounded by the idea of 'lancing the abcess', and so giving into our deepest desires to release 'the double', or become something more than we are now. But, since this will  probably be more a combination of styles, rather than just using Artaud's teaching to our advantage, to contrast the big strechings of chorus work to wow the audience, we can use Stanislavski's naturalism to ease some scene and bring the focus to the individual characters and their emotions. Using coplex gimmick troughout the play would be just as predictable and perhaps even boring as making an entire play in naturalism(not saying naturalism is boring, but without interesting characters and plot development, it can get a bit exhausting). I can also see hint of Brecht in the play, mainly because of the character of Florrie, who Lochhead solely created in the play to highlight the gap between different classes, bringing on an political side to the play. 

   

25.03.2014

Today we were able to show our progress to our director and get some constructive criticism on our scenes. With this, we also made some changes to the existing scenes, to bring in more of Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty and making it better over all.
   The main points for the first scene were about Mina and Lucy and how they were portrayed. The acting needs to be much more realistic, but this is probably the fault of scripts being used in the scenes, since we are not memorized yet. It was pointed out to us that we should already start learning our lines, since it is long when we need to be memorized. It will also help us with our acting, giving us more freedom in our movements and actions. The scene with Mina and Lucy needs to blocked to the end, because after tying Lucy's laces, the girls are not doing much with themselves. Other changes that Andy made for us, were about the chorus observing the two girls. We were already reacting to some off the things Lucy says, but our director told us to be more visible and bigger with our reactions. We also decided on certain parts to react even stronger, especially when Lucy starts teasing Mina by referring Mina sleeping with Jonathan. This really highlights Lucy's sexuality and the temptations she has, coming back to Artaud and how he talks about the society making us hide our true inner wants and his ideas on releasing the abscess.
   The biggest changes and modification were made on the second scene. One of the main changes were the words we were repeating and how we should do it. We were already repeating the words "Bedlam" and "Screw Lucy", but now it was pointed out that it should be a certain number of times we say it, three being the magic number this time, just to make the end of the repetition more prominent. We also react and repeat the word spider. Andy also added that when Renfield says the nursery rhyme "She-swallowed-the-cat-to-catch-the-bird-she-swallowed-the-bird-to-catch-the-spider-she-swallowed-the-spider-to-catch-the-fly-but-i-don't-know-why" we should all join in and sign in our own manic ways. These changes really allow all of us to be more involved with the scene and also highlight the message that Renfield is trying to tell, warning about Dracula's presence. It also shows how all of the patients and nurses are just as crazy as Renfield is, also referring that the other characters in the play may just be just as insane.
   Other big change in this scene is to do with the part when Renfield talks about 'the bad machines', referring to shock therapy. At this part all of the loonies should react, since it something they have probably gone trough and are afraid of. Even though shock therapy is still used today, and is shown to help with serious therapy, during the 19th century, it was used without the proper knowledge of the effects shock therapy might have on people, and so it was more like torture than treatment. During this part two of the nurses, Jenny and Sophia, will go up to Renfield and start to prop her into shock therapy against her will. As Renfield describe the treatment, Jenny, Sophia, Yunusa and Harry lift her from her legs to start the therapy. As she start comvulsing, so do all the other loonies in the chorus, again using Artaud's methods to disturb the audience and physically showing how Renfield is feeling.

24.03.2014

Starting To Work On The Scenes

1st Scene

   The first scene of the play shows Lucy and Mina discussing the arrival of Minas future husband, Jonathan, and gives the first impressions of these sisters and the differences between them. Lucy is very much the young and naive girl, being stuck in the role of a little girl since her mothers death, making Mina, on the other hand, take on the role of a mother. During the scene, Mina is obviously caring of Lucy, and treats her with silk gloves, even if Lucy's teasing would be considered improper. In the novel, Lucy and Mina were originally cousins, but in the discussion we had during class, we figured out that they were turned into sister to highlight the fact that taboos and desires were thicker and more hidden in the higher classes during the Victorian era. This very much connects with Artaud's ideas and how we suppress our desires. This is also a very big symbol within this scene, and it is shown with the relationship between the two women. Lucy is much more free with her thoughts and isn't afraid to express her desire to be married(maybe for love, perhaps for something else) and she teases her sister by saying that she would delay getting ready for Jonathan to surprise her in the undergarments. She also suggests that Mina give Jonathan something to remember Mina by, referring to sex, but Mina is quick to suppress these kind of thoughts. She is the image of a proper Victorian woman, holding on to the Victorian values.
    We started the blocking by having Lucy come on stage alone, skipping and humming a song. She picks up a flower to finish the song and then look at herself in the mirror, showing her vanity and self-love. We decided that instead of using an actual mirror, we could use Lucy W to work as Izzys mirror image, using the mirroring methods we have learned in movement. After this, Mina joins Lucy in their garden to do the rest of scene. Rest of the blocking was very much improvised, and I think we, especially Izzy and Sophia, should work on how they move on stage, so that there won't be any awkward standing, but that it would actually seem they are two sisters in their garden.
   Later, after working on the second scene in Bedlam, we decided to have everyone observing the scene with the sisters as their crazy personalities, only turned down a bit. This way, we all have something to do on stage, and it adds on to the scene, showing us snickering troughout the scene, reacting to the things the women say. It also shows the influence Dracula already has, the sisters are watched over and are not alone, even if they would think so.

2nd Scene
 
    The next scene consist of the introduction of two major characters as well, Renfield and Dr. Seward. Renfield is obviously the main focus here, since it is in Bedlam, the insane asylum. With this particular scene, we started working on it with an exercise. The class was divided into three groups of five, and our task was to create a symbol moving symbol, like we have done before, about insanity. But instead of trying to portray insaty and crazy of today, it was supposed to be something like craziness would have been in the Victorian era, to help us create an image of Bedlam. My group, which was Sophie, Liam, Yunusa, Jenny and I, started of with the idea that insanity was like music, there are different types of it, each person being an individual. But also, we felt that usually insanity is seen as something distorted and non-paced, but we felt that there is some rhythm in insanity and patterns in their actions. Our moving symbol showed the different kind of craziness, starting slowly with me creating the rhythm by doing  a sound with my finger flipping my lips, showing a childlike insanity. After this, Liam would join me with his laughing crazy, following with Harry and Sophie rocking on the ground and Jenny going to ask help frantically from each of us. This was an excellent exercise, since we would all be patient or nurses in Bedlam. After the first scene, we would all release our insanity and scatter around the stage, leaving Sophie as Renfield at the top being help down by Yunusa and Harry. Bella would position herself at the bottom steps as Dr. Goldman and Seward would be up the first stairs on the stage. The rest of us would be in groups of insane people and some nurses(probably just as crazy), working as amplifiers to Renfields message. We looked up on some words in Renfield lines that everyone is going to say, to bring more focus to them. Words like Bedlam, Screw Lucy, Master and Bad Machines will be repeated since they important for the play and the scene. When Renfield mentiones Bedlam, all the 'patients' will start repeating the word, going out of control, since Bedlam is where they are, but it is also hell to live in. Repeating the phrase screw Lucy shows the influence Dracula has on Renfield, but also on Lucy. Renfield has never met Lucy and doesn't know who she is, but he does have subconscious idea of this person, got from Dracula. The word master is also repeated, referring to Dracula, but as whispers, so it won't be so obvious and shows the fear the insane people of Bedlam have towards this menacing creature. Bad machines is not repeated by everyone, but rather reacted by, for shock therapy was not the most pleasant experience, showing the fright the insane have towards it. At the end of the scene, when Seward leaves to meet with Jonathan, we decided that all the insane would let loose, and start laughing manically, as the main doctor has left and there is no reason to hide the crazy.
   This scene works as a direct contrast to the previous one; Lucy and Mina are suppressing their tempations and dark thoughts, when Renfield and the other insane let it loose without any control. It also starts to show the control Dracula has on them and how he is already involved with the people in England, even if he himself has never actually been present.

3rd Scene
 
   During the scene in Bedlam, Seward spots Jonathan Harker, his old friend from school, in the yard taking pictures. This scene then is the discussion they have in Seward's office, catching up on their lives and Jonathan persuading  Seward to join him on his holiday in Whitby. We wanted the scene to be more closed of than the two before, because the discussion between these two men was held in privacy. What we did to do this effect, was to have everyone stand in three lines to form a wall, separating Harker and Seward from the rest of the stage. Everyone in the line would be facing away from the two men to create more of the sense of privacy. Everyone would be laughing, until Jonathan and Seward make contact by shaking hands and hugging.
   During this scene, my character Jonathan talks a lot about how great his life is and even mentioning the short comings of Seward, a man in his thirties who is not married and works in an asylum, is probably not what Jonathan would call an ideal life. This might be because during their school days, Seward was in control, making sure that Jonathan knew his place, as Sewards 'slave'. Even though there sin't any obvious hatred between the men, I do think there was always some rivalry, especially on Jonathan's part, since he seems so eager to tell about how wonderful his life is. There is also a class difference between Jonathan and Seward, which is shown in the play by calling Seward a "scholarship boy", which adds to their relationship. I believe that Seward used to have much higher status, but as time has gone by, Jonathan has taken the upper hand, realizing his position in class, having a good respectful career and soon to being married to heiress. Jonathan pities Seward, and so decides to help Seward by inviting him to Whitby.
   During the scene, we anted 'the walls' to have something to react to, and so again we chose some words where the chorus would turn their heads to show they are still watching. Words like Miss Westerman and Dracula are reacted like so, but also at the end of the when Jonathan mentiones temptaion, the walls would start to turn in cannon, and as I say "But Arthur, if all I've heard about, nurse is true, then..." the chorus would start slowly turning back to the insane at Bedlam, muffling out the end of the line and creating a smooth transition from Sewards office back to Bedlam.
   I still need to do more work on Jonathan and his character, using Stanislavki's methods to do so. I also feel that me and Liam need to block our scene together, since now it is a lot of awkward standing. Since it is Sewards office, I feel that Liam as Seward should be more relaxed, serving drinks and cigars to his guest. There could also be variation in sitting down and standing and more movement in the space.

Behavior in class

Q1. WHY IS IT YOU ALWAYS CHAT AND GIGGLE DURING EXERCISES?
   From day one, we have been told to focus during class and leave our lives, problems and gossip outside of class. Still, after a semester and a half, most of the class seem to be incapable to do so. We keep on interrupting the class, giggle from the smallest thing, not being able to do what they are asked for. The obvious reason for this is the fact that people are just not focused during class, peoples minds keep wondering and flying off to somewhere else than our current topics or exercises. I also feel that there is a over all lack of respect towards other student sand our teachers; lack of the respect to do your best so that everyone else can work as hard as they can as well. Giggling can also stem from inner low self-esteem, people are embarrassed to make a fool of themselves in front of everyone else, because they are afraid they will get bullied or ridiculed because of their actions. This group, although close, isn't very trusting leading to uncertainty and nervous giggles.

Q2. WHY DO YOU CONSTANTLY HAVE TO BE REMINDED TO STAN IN NEUTRAL, WEAR APPROPRIATE CLOTHING, TIE YOUR HAIR BACK, TAKE OFF HATS ETC?
   I think the reason for these mistakes, or rather this kind of behavior, comes from lack of commitment to the course and also from high levels of self awareness. I feel that, for some people, looking good and wearing fashionable clothing is more important than wearing something appropriate. People find it hard to break off of their old habits, which only direct to the fact that they are not entirely 110% committed to this course. Yes, it might feel funny or even ridiculous to stand in neutral, or always have your hair up or wear sweats, but it helps us to focus and create a well-balanced working environment, where we are not using our energy to look good, but rather work creatively without the constrictions of our insecurities.

Q3. WHY IS THIS ALL SO IMPORTANT REGARDING YOUR ACTING?
   Simply put, you cannot act if you are insecure about yourself. As an actor, you need to out all of you, raw and imperfect, up on the stage and show your talents, and all this distracts from becoming better at our jobs. In real life, when you giggle or are not wearing the right clothes to work, you won’t just be told off by someone, you will most likely be fired or at least your reputation will be ruined for the people you were working with. Actors need to have the discipline in yourself to be able to control your giggle attacks, even if you find something funny. Interrupting other talking and doing their hardest to work is extremely unrespectful, and if you cannot show respect to others, you do not deserve it yourself.

   A week or two backwards, during one of our group discussion between the students, there were some that tried to bring this issue up, hoping that next year things could be different. I think it was a good thing to discuss it between the the students, but at the same time, again, I just felt that not everyone was listening, or would have rather just got on with their day. This isn't okay. If we cannot even listen to each others, what we have to say and take a note of everyone’s opinions, how are we supposed to work together in class?