Writing the development section 20 marks! (Double that of the Rationale!)

What to include… All about the rehearsal It is about the techniques you use to help improve your piece It should show the journey of your work from start to finish It is not just about the group journey – but about your own character development too.

What NOT to include… Heavy description of what you did – this will not get you the marks! Explanations of scenes Boring commentary – SHOW YOUR KNOWLEDGE!

How to structure it – where to start You then need to say YOUR character. What was the character in the early stages (a boy? A mother? A wife?) and then you can discuss how you developed this using different rehearsal techniques. E.g. a character profile to put things in perspective for your character – you started to think of an age? What was it? Personality traits that may be shown in certain scenes? – which scenes and which performance skills did you need to use to show this? (posture, change in voice so you do not sound like a year 10 student!)

An example To begin the development of me character I focused on the age (10 years old) and my personality (pleasant, kind-hearted). This decision was put in place by the group at the early stages of discussing the theme ‘The nightmare’. I was to play the role of the daughter of the protagonist role (Ernie), who was experiencing the horrific recurring nightmare of my (Hannah’s) death which would eventually become a reality. At the beginning stages of bringing this character to life physically I was made aware of the juxtaposition that I needed to create to make the real life nightmare more shocking and effective for the audience. My physicality needed to present a bubbly and open character. I knew I needed to have an open stance and be quite tactile with other characters, particularly my parents to show the strong bond I had with them. Vocally, I was aware that I needed to show the innocence of her age by using my upper range but not being too high-pitched that it becomes un-realistic to the audience.

2nd element Only then can you discuss DEVELOPING your character further. What questions were asked to you during the hot-seating? How did you react (spontaneously – through improvisation I assume!) – what did you then take from this experience? How could you use this reaction and incorporate it into a scene or section? – You must give an example of scene or section it directly influenced to show development of character. Do not merely say ‘it helped me improve and understand my character’ as this means and says nothing. It is all about the DETAIL!

2nd element continued You can also refer to though-tracking (thoughts of your character at a certain moment in the play that you have discussed as a group). What we the problems with the scene that this is relevant to? Was the dialogue not obvious enough? Did it not show a true relationship between your character and another character? How did thought-tracking help show the FEELINGS of the character better? Making it believable to you audience.

2nd element – HOW developed character Using techniques like….. Hot-seating Thought-tracking Character Profiling Research Watching back filmed clips of your Physical theatre Working from feedback

An example To aid me in my personal development of this character I completed a character profile to help me present her with more realism and help me react better with the actors playing my parents. In completion of this profile, I wanted her to have a stronger relationship with her mother which would aid the plot of her father ‘not speaking up’ about the nightmare. In this bond, I would have to show subtly through the use of ‘subtext’. I decided that she would have a similar passion for writing that she gained from her mother. This could therefore make their relationship stronger as the mother can see herself in her daughter. We created a Frantic Assembly influenced introduction to the characters using only pedestrian movement and the ‘Frantic’ technique ‘Round/By/Through’ to show my character’s relationship with her parents. This was a really successful rehearsal technique as we could see the physical barrier between father and daughter but also allowed me to show her almost ‘shyness’ to approach her father in certain situations. This helped me select a more guarded physicality in the first scene to show that she is more open and responsive to her mother. I developed the character further by being more aware of this when we went on to create dialogue between mother/daughter and father daughter, for example: the disagreement about the ‘sleepover’ in third scene. I needed to show that I was more reluctant to comment on my father’s line, “I am not having 10 screaming girls in my house!” than that of the persuasion in my one of voice on “Please Mum…just once.” The facial expression needed to be really strong here to understand the depth of the two relationships which I extracted from my profile and the discussion of the character profiles that the other two actors created.

3rd aspect You can also refer to an extract you showed to the class. What was the feedback from your teacher/peers? What did you then go away and work on to make it better? How did you show the development of the story? How did you improve the understanding behind your physical theatre choices? How did this experience of feedback help DEVELOP your piece further? In the later stages – what did you need to do to develop and establish the piece further? The importance in writing a script to establish correct and believable emotion, situation, location of a scene – and of course not being too obvious!

Later aspects in the Development section How did you find the right music to fit to the influence of Frantic Assembly? How did this add depth and feeling for your group piece? How do you want the audience to feel when they see this? Technical elements – if you discuss the use of chairs, table etc - say how you created seamless transitions, say how you showed different locations and actually state how you wanted to make this clear for the audience.

REMEMBER! It is all about the DEVELOPMENT of ideas – not just the description Don’t just explain what happens Always think about the practitioner (Frantic Assembly) and their rehearsal techniques too Refer back to your THEME (Shadows, Persistence of Memory)

Best of luck! This should be approx 750-900 words Remember it is worth double the marks of the first section. Please type it Add a word count at the end