The girls scene

THE GIRLS SCENE

We then decided that we would make the girls scenes like your typical girly girls, bitchy always arguing, love going out clubbing. I thought the best way to describe this is to base the characters around the type of girls from the programme ‘The only way is essex’ because its all over the top arguments and gossip like girly girls do. I also thought that it worked really well for the scene where there talking about Patrick sitting in the corner, this is the same sort of things that happen in the programme with the dramatic arguments over boys. I think that to be able to pull this off would be really good as it would make the girls parts of the performance really over the top and funny which is exactly what the performance needs. This clip below shows exactly what we are aiming for as that’s how most of the scenes turn out with them arguing with each other and bitching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp8yypkPUsc

The Inbetweeners | Jay's Friend | Series 1 - Episode 4

THE LADS SCENES:

I think that the best way to describe the way that we set out the lads scenes was basing it around the programme ‘The Inbetweeners’ . I thought that it would be best to base it around the characters in this programme as there 4 young lads sort of the same age as the lads in our performance with the right personalities for our performance. I think it would also be very effective as we tried to make our lads scene with some banter and this programme is based around that, also it has that one mate that always lies in and makes stuff up which I think is spot on because we want to make something that the audience can relate to and we expected most of the audience to be around or age. I think that it’s also really similar to our bouncers performance due to it making your feel like you have been in that sort of situation which is why its was best for our characters to be based around them. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9-hRivcIY8

Evaluation of bouncers:

Strengths:

The rehearsal process –

In my opinion one of the finest parts of the performance as a whole was the rehearsal process,  I consider this to be our strongest point due to it being the part that we was always working on. All of our lessons that we had for bouncers we worked on different techniques that we thought would be effective, for instance we tried to adjust our performance due to the given space to create the atmosphere that we were actually in a nightclub. We looked into this throughout the time we rehearsed due to the four of us needing to be more spatially aware of each other, for example a member of our cast wasn’t standing in the right position which was affecting the rest of the cast. Our director decided that she would give us some elements of our performance to work on which helped resolve the problem of bunching up. I believe that this is why the rehearsal process is the most essential part of developing the performance. Another aspect to the rehearsal process was the opening scene, I feel that this part was really effective as we came up with the idea ourselves. We was originally going to do the ‘bouncers rap’ which I thought we be quite funny but the problem was that I didn’t know if everyone would be able to get it all In time. Personally I think that the dance that we used in the begging was better and it showed a different side to the bouncers which I think worked well. Another thing that I thought worked so well was helping each other with our lines.

Use of music in the soundtrack –

The music in our performance was used in an effective way as it was a key to create an atmosphere. As a matter of opinion I believe that music can be so effective in any performance as it doesn’t just change the emotions of the character in can change the emotions of the audience.  This is shown many times throughout the performance, as an example in the pub we had some old songs like ‘come on Eileen’ which is a really upbeat song to sing along to and also in the scene with the lads in the barbers where we had the stone roses ‘fool’s gold’ which is quite mellow and easy to listen to which is what you expect at a barbers. Its tiny things like that which can have a whole different effect on a performance.  We took a lesson out rehearsals to find the right music which I think was probably one of the best lesson as us being able to have the music meant we was able to get that real feel that we was in the scene which I think is effective in the rehearsal process as well as it helps you get a real feel for your character.

The set –

I thought that the set worked out really well in the end as it was quite a small stage but it was long out to the back which worked really effectively to give the effect that it was actually in a night club. The set was also really plain which also worked quite nicely as it was black which gave us lots of freedom to do whatever we wanted to do to the set, for example the lights showed up really nicely because of the dark background. I also liked that we used very little props on set because it made us work a lot harder than before as we needed to make the changes when changing scene a lot more noticeable which was a good challenge which I think we pulled off.  I think something that we could have done which would have been really  nice would have been to put an actual bar at the front of the front of the stage so that the audience are able to go up and get a drink whenever they like throughout the performance to give it that club atmosphere.

Things that we could try differently if we was to perform this again: 

Setting—

I thought that it would be would create a really nice atmosphere if we was to perform this again in a nightclub. I would consider this to be the best option for a setting due to what I feel that John Godber’s intentions were for the performance, this was that his performance wasn’t intended for just people who like theatre it was designed for everyday people as they would find it funny as they most likely have been in the situations that the characters go through in the performance. To top off the fact that he tries to get the audience to feel how the characters would I believe that it would make it even more effective if there in the setting where they have experienced it. I think it would also be quite affective if we was to not actually set out any chairs for the audience so that there actually like there not watching the performance and its just a club with them being able to go to the bar when they want to.

Characters –

One thing that we could do if we were to perform this piece again would be to actually go and spend a night with some bouncers to get a real feel for the characters and get to see what they actually have to go through on a day to day basis. This would be affective as in the act of the performance our bouncers were  played as sort of a preconception of what bouncers are actually like and I don’t believe that we could actually play the characters to their full potential until we have done the job they have. Another thing that I would also try with my character if we were to re-perform this piece would be to try using a different accent maybe or change the characteristic of my character for different effect.

Conclusion—

As a whole I thought that the performance was excellent for the short space of time that we learnt the script in and set it out. Most other performances can take up to a few months to prepare and perform and this may have been shorter but we managed to connect and get on with this really quickly. In the rehearsal process everyone got on really well and managed to develop the characters well and learnt lines quick which is really useful because if you know your lines we are able to go into detail, such as doing certain things when a line is said like facial expressions and movement. I think that if we was also to perform this again then I think that I would change the script back to how it originally was instead of cutting a lot of it out, this is because there’s so many other good parts in the script which I think would have been effective to have in the performance.  I would definitely love to perform bouncers again to a bigger audience as I’m certain that the public would be pleased with the performance and would find it extremely funny.  I think that also if we was to do this again I would have got a lot more different types of lights to light them in a less dramatic way as such and more in the sense that its an actual night club, for example using moving lights and maybe strobe lights for the scenes where we was all dancing.

 

Weekly round up of bouncers

1: I thought that I contributed my ideas into a few things this week from the design of the set and the opening sequence to the performance. I thought that it would be quite affective if when the audience are walking in we stand on the door as the bouncers asking for there money and things like that to create an atmosphere that it's like an actual nightclub. We also though we could have bar tables and stools for the audience and a drinks bar too. Also I thought that throughout our opening dance that we could have people start to cause trouble like drunk people would in a nightclub again to build the atmosphere.

2. There was aspects of my performance which I needed to work on this week, one of the main things was the girls scene. I manged to change from one character to another in the scence of my manerisms where fine apart from my voice which needs to be abit higher. Also think that I could work I learning my monologue and the lads bar scene as it here one of the only bits I don't perticually know. I think that the best thing that I could do is to keep going over and over my monologue but the bar scene we all need to go over it as a group I feel. 

3. Strengths in this weeks lessons:

I feel that the strengths of this weeks lessons where that we was able to straight away run it as we knew most of our lines. We also managed to get most of it set out on stage as we have been rehursing in the hall. I think that we also got better and not clumping up together on one part of the stage.

Weaknesses of this weeks lessons: 

I thought the only fault that we had this week was the bar scene as we didn't really have a clue what we was going to do ? Nobody really knew there lines for this scene which was strange as we knew the other scene and where to be. Other than that I thought we had a good week of rehursals.

4. 

John godber's intentions for bouncers

As a personal opinion I believe that john godber's intentions with bouncers was to create a performance in theatre that wasn't all about signing and dancing, he intended to create a performance that was suitable for many different people. I think this is strongly shown in each of the scenes, as you have scenes that are focused on a young group of lads, Middle Ages women, and of course the bouncers themselfs which i feel is very creative in getting it across to the audience. I think that it what he has done is possible on of the hardest things you can do as there's always the risk that still people arnt gonna come and watch it but he still went through with it and was able to make it the show hilarious. 

I like the way that he does different scenes with different age and different sex characters as the audience may feel a lot more evolved. Another reason I feel that he's trying to make it suitable for everyone as he puts everyday situations in the performance that people can relate to and I feel that if you see things that are realistic it makes it a lot funnier if you have experienced tht situation.

Bouncers performing arts weekly evaluations:

.1.    In this week’s lesson we started to focus a lot on the girl scenes as they were the ones that need developing the most. We had a few lessons on how girls do things such as the way they walk, the way they stand, the way they talk and all of the things girls do to develop our characters. We started off by being really stiff and everything didn’t look very natural, but then we got up and started to do some exercises which helped us because by the time that we have finished and moved into the next scene we was all really energetic which got everything in the right shape. We also worked really hard on script work and managed to do the first few scenes without scripts which we really surprised our self’s with.

. 2.  This week we have really worked on the technique of being able to change from one character to another changing accents or the way you stand as that is what most of the play involves. A lot of the time we have to change the way that we speak as men and women have different mannerisms. Changing the way that you stand is also something that I needed to show to the audience that you have changed character.  

    3.   Successful aspects:

I feel that the most successful part of this week’s lesson was all of us being able to run through a good chunk of the script and not having to use them and being able to run the scenes fluently. I also think that we also worked really well on developing the scene with the lads in as it was abit to similar to the bouncers scenes. We decided to change the stance of each other the way we talk and to be really cocky.

Unsuccessful aspects:

I think that some of the scenes need a bit more work on as they can sometimes become too dry and I’m sure that the people watching will defiantly start to get distracted which isn’t what you want because as soon as we lose that we might not be able to get it back fully other than that I feel that this week’s lessons have been successful  

4. The only way that I believe that we will manage to get the scenes better that we’re going off track with is to just keep on going over it and decide what needs improving, what bits are good and that sort of thing otherwise we don’t know what’s going wrong or what’s really good. Once we have done that I think that the scene should start to have a big change and the changes should be really effective all that’s needed is rehursal.

John Godber's Bouncers - National Tour 2012 - Trailer