14th November

This lesson we worked on creating the opening scene to our performance. We started with a modern twist on the greek myth, it is started at a party, and we decided to have a movement piece to start it and get the audience's attention. After creating the start of our movement piece and running out of ideas to include so we decided to try out a greek begining. In this we tried to create a authentic greek party for the king. Two of the guests at the party become intoxicated and start a fight with each other, adding more for the year 7s to watch. Also within it we decided to include a greek dance and an interuption during the dance to add some comedy. This will add entertainment to our piece making it enjoyable for the year 7's, it will also allow me to use some of my skills helping to choreograph and dance it. After trying both ways we decided to stick with the greek beginning as it is different to anything we have done before and we managed to create more for it. 

I have researched some Greek music and looked at videos of Greek dancing to give us inspiration for what to put in the dance. 

Friday 7th November

In each of our groups we decided on what parts of the story we had chosen, Jason and the Argonauts. We chose the journey to the island where the six-armed monsters are. We then created a short piece and put the rest of the class into it. To make it appropriate for the year 7's we tried to add some comedic elements such as slow motion fighting and music to keep them entertained. I also thought of the idea of having crash mats at the front of the stage, covered in scrunched up paper so it looks like rocks, so we can push the 'monsters' off of the front of the stage. This will add excitement and surprise to the performance as people are thrown off the front of the stage. Our part of the story also includes violence and death which appeals to the year 7's we will be performing to. We then included the rest of the class in it, directing them as to what to do. We also made the King very camp and flamboyant to add more comedy to the piece. 

It became quite difficult to create without the whole class as we didn't have enough people to be different characters but we managed to plan around it. I don't think it was the best part of the story to use because of the number of characters, it is also quite a short story and we cannot use a massive range of techniques within it limiting the development of the performance. 

The part I struggled with the most was the slow motion fighting, making it look realistic. I think I need to work on my physicality and making the movements look natural and practise making them flow so it looks like a real fight. A good example of choreographed fighting is at the start of west side story so I am going to watch clips of this and try to learn how they move and get inspiration for what to include.

The first of the other group did the story of the sirens and it was really effective and impressive. The simplicity really worked with the addition of music it was really interesting to watch. I cannot remember what part of the story produced as it wasn't very memorable or entertaining. They needed to develop it further and think about the target audience. 

Friday 24th October

For each of the Greek myths we discussed what was good and bad about them after seeing each others performances, keeping our target audience in mind.

Everyone agreed that the music used in their short performance was extremely effective and the idea of a physical piece was interesting as it would be very different to any stories that they would usually be told. The actual content of Jason and the Golden fleece is very varied so it would give us a lot of choice as to what parts of the story we did, but this could also be a problem as there is so much we could do it may be too long and the audience would therefore loose interest. 

The group that had the story of Medusa also modernized the story, although we decided it was not appropriate as it involved Medusa being a prostitute. The actual story of Medusa is interesting so there is a good story to work with in the first place which is important, although there aren't many parts so it is not great to make use of all of us. Most people know the story of Medusa, but not why she became what she did so it would also be nice to tell her story properly and the year 7's would know who we were talking about. 

I voted for us to do Jason and the Golden Fleece. This is mainly because it has so many stories within it it will be easy to devise an interesting performance. We can also easily tailor it to our audience by choosing the parts of the story with violence and such involved to keep them interested. Although I do like the story of Medusa, I think this is more appropriate for year 7's to watch and I think they will be more interested in this rather than Aries which does not have much of a story. 

Friday 17th October

We started the lesson with a work out as we always to do to work on our fitness and get us ready for the lesson. The unit that we are currently doing, Story Telling, in my opinion requires us to be fit as it can become quite physical, for example using lifts and physical theatre to make a piece more interesting. 

This is what we came up with as the things that our target audience, year 7 boys, like and are interested in so we could tailor our performance to keep them entertained.

We then split into three groups and with the remaining three Myths, each created a part of the story. Toby, Dom and I decided that we would modernize the story of Aries. Using the original idea of adultery and public humiliation we created a story where a girl cheats on her boyfriend, at a party, with Aries. Pictures of Aries and the girl are then posted on 'snapchat' and all of the other social networking sites, and all of the blame is pinned on Aries; therefore he is publicly humiliated but in a way the audience can relate to. This will in turn make the story more interesting as the audience will understand and not get bored watching an old-fashioned story. We also included a dance to show the girls choice to betray her boyfriend, using this different medium to tell the story I think will again help to keep the audience interested and also show a wider variety of our skills as a class. Including a dance in our performance is a good idea as I can use my specialised skills to choreograph it and show one of my strengths.

Our 3 Greek Myths

Aries was the God of war, and often known as Ares. Aries was known for his lust for blood, his chaotic nature, and his thoughtless aggression. Greek mythology Aries often had a quick temper and was prone to jealous outbursts. He lusted afterAphrodite, the goddess of love, and eventually lost her to Adonis, the most beautiful man in the world. Not accepting defeat (as a god of war shouldn't I suppose), he turned himself into a boar and killed Adonis.

Aries (Greek mythology) was also father to the famous Amazon women of the Doiantian Plain. These hardy warrior women were some of the most brutal warriors in all of mythology. Ironically, their mother was Harmonia, the goddess of harmony and concord. I guess they took after their father.

Jason was the son of the lawful king of Iolcus, but his uncle Pelias had usurped the throne. Pelias lived in constant fear of losing what he had taken so unjustly. He kept Jason's father a prisoner and would certainly have murdered Jason at birth. But Jason's mother deceived Pelias by mourning as if Jason had died. Meanwhile the infant was bundled off to the wilderness cave of Chiron the Centaur. Chiron tutored Jason in the lore of plants, the hunt and the civilized arts. When he had come of age, Jason set out like a proper hero to claim his rightful throne.

Medusa was the daughter of Phorkys and Keto, the children of Gaea(Earth) and Oceanus (Ocean). She was one of the three sisters known as theGorgons. The other two sisters were Sthenno and Euryale. Medusa was the only mortal out of the three.

She was originally a golden-haired and very beautiful maiden, who, as a priestess of Athena, was devoted to a life of celibacy; but, being wooed by Poseidon, whom she loved in return, she forgot her vows, and became united to him in marriage. For this offence she was punished by the goddess in a most terrible manner. Each wavy lock of the beautiful hair which had so charmed her husband, was changed into a venomous snake; her once gentle, love-inspiring eyes now became blood-shot, furious orbs, which excited fear and disgust in the mind of the beholder; whilst her former roseate hue and milk-white skin assumed a loathsome greenish tinge. Seeing herself thus transformed into so repulsive an object, Medusa fled from her home, never to return. Wandering about, abhorred, dreaded, and shunned by all the world, she now developed into a character, worthy of her outward appearance. In her despair she fled to Africa, where, as she passed restlessly from place to place, infant snakes dropped from her hair, and thus, according to the belief of the ancients, that country became the hotbed of these venomous reptiles. With the curse of Athene upon her, she turned into stone whomsoever she gazed upon, till at last, after a life of nameless misery, deliverance came to her in the shape of death, at the hands of Perseus

Story Telling - 5 Different Ways

• Narration, for example Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat
• This is good because it tells the audience exactly what is happening and it's easy to add detail. This is an  good technique to use when telling stories to children as it's easy to understand.

• Movement/ Physical Theatre, for example Café Müller by Pina Bausch
• This is an interesting and contemporary way of telling a story and often has no speech but only noises such as screaming and breathing. This is a good way of focusing more on the emotions than the speech and creates a more powerful performance. 

• Dance, for example Swan Lake
• This is similar to movement and physical theatre except it is more disciplined and choreographed. Instead of directly telling a story  it portrays the feelings of the characters through movement and body language and lets the audience's imagination do the rest. 

• Acting, for example Lord of the Flies
• This technique is the most traditional for telling a story on stage. It is effective because it brings to life the characters people have only imagined and is a very realistic way of telling the story, making it more relatable.

• Singing/Musical, for example Phantom of the Opera or Les Misérables
• This is an old fashioned way of telling a story which focuses on singing to create the story. It makes it more interesting as the characters are not just speaking but is not appealing to all audiences.