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.
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