Working as a narrator you can feel set apart or isolated from the rest of the cast. I only ever spoke to Ryan K or Jack P in this play, and this can feel hard. As I wasn't a 'character' I didn't know who to be which is highly challenging!
However, in a sense the narrator holds the story together by propelling the story forward. What the narrator says is true and has/will happen (supposedly! Unless the narrator is an unreliable narrator, which in this case they are not)
At the very end of the play James himself becomes a narrator of his own story. The main character becomes the narrator and the narrators become observers. This in a sense means that, in fact, the narrators are James, are the story.
As a narrator it is very important to be clear in diction and strong in projection as we drive the story. What follows is the bullet points shown in our Assignment Description for U11:2
Strong projection
I have very tight diaphragm and have to work hard on relaxing enough to project my voice. I find watching videos and training myself at home really helps... here are a few videos I found helpful:
Clear articulation
I particularly like the "She stood upon the balcony" one and often use it before a show.
These are excellent to use!
Pace and Use of space
I know I tend to rush my words so I have developing insight into a personal tendency to be rather apologetic in my occupying of space. I am trying to become reflexive in relation to legitimately taking my place within the acting arena and realise that each memeber of the cast has a 'right' to be seen and listened to.
Texture appropriate to the story telling nature of the piece and Appropriate vocal and physical choices for characters portrayed
As I understand this to mean the bring variety and intrest to the piece I could use
Expression (Shock wide mouth, fear trembling, annoyance tapping my foot)
Vocal pace (Surprise! Worriedness. Annoyance!)
Interaction with other narrators (Grabbing someones hand in fear, kneeling down in fear, touching arm to reassure)
Posture (Openness - broad arm movement and open chest, fear - slouched shoulders, closed arms for protection)
Voice tone
Pitch
Tempo (fast for fear or excitment, slow for soothing)
Volume (Telling a story compared quietly)
Use of breath sounds (emotional expression, shouting for joy, breathy for fear)
Use of silence (telling a story, hang on my words! Its important, listen!)
Use of weight and physicalization of characters
Narrator
Me and Ryan K were advised that our posture was too intense and leaning forward like the picture left could be construed as aggressive.
We were told to pull our shoulders back, relax our arms and not lean forward (right). I think we were doing this in a sort of "secret telling" way, but it did look aggressive. Also using the gently index-finger holding hand movement is seen as less aggressive that pointing
Shark
At first us puppetiers were very stiff with the sharks, but we found out movements better if we used out knees and swam through our movements like we were swimming through the sea. I found it particularly helpful to use my knees to bring up and down weight and movement to the sharks.
Ship
Surprisingly similar technique to what i used with the shark. Slow movements were also needed, the ships heavy, its not going to move fast.
To go to beside the glowworm so that I can run to the peach on my line "And all you had to do anyday of the week was to go and knock upon the door"
To remember my cues, or let Becky take them if I am slow (even though I do remember them! Haha! you have to be flexible if this happens and not be annoyed with yourself or the other person)
To jump of the peach carefully, as I do make a lot of noise if I jump off where its too high
To jump off before my cue for speech as I need time to get to the Glowworm
We (sarah, me and ryan K) were told from the beginning we would be using a handheld puppet of the funnel ship, and that we would have 2D puppets of the ships Captain (Ryan K) First officer (Me) and Second officer (Sarah).
We had a some challenges with the ship, which are best described by the following images:
The waves were detached and moved side to side held by Becky and Jack P (the problem with this was the waves often got stuck, and that their were too many people in the area)
The steam shapes also got in the way of us 'on' the ship.
Next the waves were attached
This was the final design
I ended up holding the ship and had to remember to keep the ship moving gently and to use my knees to make the ship movements slowly.
This scene went through quite a lot of changes as we progressed but one of the main parts of this scene which set it apart was the many puppets we had to use. Firstly we had to organize what movements we would do around the Peach.
We were told we would be three sharks and that they would circle on the stage. At first we (Me, Sarah and Becky) were instructed to circle the peach (going fast) in one direction and then the other way. We didn't know what type of puppet we would be using so we just improvised holding the puppet.
The next type we tried was for two of us to go anti-clockwise and the other two to go around clockwise. Again this seemed to confuse the eye and take the attention off the Peach too much.
The third and final movements are demonstrated in this drawing i made to help me remember what to do:
Even up to the day of the show we made a change to this scene. After our final run-through Chris L advised me to keep focused on the shark and not what was going on in the Peach while I was waiting for the cue to leave.
I had a lot of trouble holding my shark for the relatively long period we were one stage. The small sticks we used on the rod puppet quite hurt my hands, I tried to hold the sticks loosely and carry on.
We added a little bit from the original book because the jump from scene 4 to 5 seemed a little disjointed and it would be easier to understand if we did. I found this part from the book which seemed to fit well.
The narrators each took a sentance which we said whilst we were holding our respective puppet
"As the first seagull flew down, James looped the silk around its neck and attached it to the stem".
Ongoing Targets!
To enter at the correct cue
To move down and around the stage slowly
To attack the peach! (this was added after a couple of shows after our directors realized it looked better
To attack the members on the peach
To bend my knees and outurn my wrists whilst holding the shark rods
To exit early enough that I can grab the ship and prepare to enter again at the right cue (which we often got wrong. To enter before the people on the peach speak about the ship as this makes more sense)
This was one of the hardest scenes for us Narrators to block and organise. It was also, in my opinion, our main scene as we were the frontcharacters of this scene for the first time (as we were directed), the most time on stage and the most to do with the children!
The script: We cut out from "I dont believe it" to "every street in the village" as we were not going to take the intertextual link any further from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (another Roald Dahl book, interestingly Charlie was published in 1965, four years after James. I checked in the original book and this link is made there too, so obviously Dahl had already begun planning Charlie whilst he was writing James) as this might confuse our audience.
Dividing up the narration into three peoples lines was decided by our director. However, we did swap around occasionally if it worked beter for some reason (such as it would make a better entrance line, or it didnt make sense with our physical actions).
The stage: Early on we were told we would be acting with a beach ball or exercise ball representing the peach.
We had giant books with:
Telegraph pole
Two parked cars
Cows and sheep in a field
Village
Children would be brought up by Ryan K and positioned in above order from down stage left to right.
Jack stands downstage right, Ryan K downstage center and I stand down stage left. The children are in front of us.
After the children have their books shut we came up with the idea of having the children roll the ball upwards over their heads towards the exit and us pointing to it and following it with our gestures to represent bobbing around on the sea.
Movement and speech: Chris Davey was out specialist ''Movement director'' and helped us loads with this scene. When we first started blocking it, it was very static and we simply held the peach until we passed it, but Chris showed us how to roll with the peach and the insects and James followed our movements behind us.
We debated bumping (gently) the kids on the head as they were meant to close the book, but decided against it as the kids might'nt like it. Instead we decided on gently touching the book and guiding the kids to close it.
Evaluation: Overall I think this was the best scene for the narrators. I struggled with one line (so annoying!) of "The cows and sheep and horses stampeding in all directions". For some reason I just could not remember it! To overcome this I repeatedly read over my lines, and the couple of times I did forget I just made something up along the same lines, I hope no one noticed!
Notes: A couple of times Ryan K forgot to mention that the kids should put their hands up for the peach, and I had to improvise it on the spot as I was holding the peach last. I just continued my wibbly-wobbly movements which Chris D showed me for the previous part of the scene and carried the peach off at the end.
Ongoing Targets!
To remember my lines!!!!!
To wobble the fence when Jack P begins to shake it
To look at the peach/fence not at the Aunts or the audience as this is distracting and seem un-professional
To help the children open their books and be in the correct position
To improvise when necessary! (In one show Ryan K had to stay with one of the particularly young child volunteers and I had to take his movements on the spot! It worked out fine!)
In this scene I bring on the collapsable tunnel for James to crawl through to get to the peach. How this is to be brought on caused some problems. First, we didn't know what type of tunnel we would be using. In the end, the Stage Management crew found one in a pet shop for dog agility training. Unfortunately it was navy blue, which seemed a shame instead of it being peach colored.
Second, who brought it on. We decided I would, as I could exit to Upstage Right through the stage door and get it.
James had a flashlight, and we thought it would be nice if whilst the stage was dark James flashed it over the kids faces to make them feel involved more.
Whilst Ryan M had his monologue about crawling through the peach we (Ryan K and me) held the tunnel, as it was still a bit small for Ryan M to get through. On cue, we both stood and took hold of the sliding screens.
A couple of problems with cues and the insects getting onto the peach, meant occasionally our (Ryan K and me) had to wait a bit longer. Ryan M also had to improvise occasionally.
Ongoing targets!
To bring the tunnel on without opening it to early!
To wait for Ryan K's cue to open the screens
To listen intently to James speech
To wait to take the earpiece from James
To remember to close the curtain behind me as I exit as this lets light on the stage
In this scene the peach is grown to full size, and the aunts have decided to charge public to come and see it. (This reinforces their wicked nature to the children, as sharing is important to (most) children.)
We added a little narration to the beginning of this scene as the original script seemed to jump without any explanation to the next scene. My line:
"Quickly, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker called in carpenters and had them build a strong fence around the peach."
As in the original script there was only one narrator, who possibly was off stage, we had particular trouble deciding how each narrator would exit or what they would do. We decided to use the narrators to come into and out of the scene
I then change to a crowd member who runs up onto the stairs and pretends to be pushing towards the peach. I take the line of "crowd member" as we don't have this cast. I then exit with Jack P off upstage right through the stage door.
Ongoing targets!
To bring energy to the crowd member
To remember to bring on the camera and the money by working out where it is off stage before going on
To wait for the fence to appear on the projection before continuing my narration
Continue to project my voice not strain it by using the diaphragm to breathe properly
The introduction of James is simple; Ryan (narrator one) exclaim to the audience "Ryan: Can you believe that?", reinforce that the parents have been eaten and James is now an orphan. He enters from the Fire exit down stage right.
I bring on James from upstage left, from behind the curtain and introduce him as "Me:...our hero". James remains frozen.
Aunt Spiker and Sponge are brought on one after another (Becky and Sarah added their lines "Urgh! Kids!" and "I hate children!" of their own accord to quickly enforce their characters) from Fire Exit downstage right.
For this scene, we the narrators are addressing the audiance straight on. The stage is set for the rest of the scene with James slaving over cutting logs, and the two aunts lazing about. I exit behind the curtain upstage left
Apart from splitting the narrators monologue up for three narrators, we cut only "if he looked..." to "...of the sky". This bit seemed unnecessary and overly descriptive.
We decided on who would take each line quite early on, however their were still a few chops and changes even up till about a week before the show!
We struggled quite a lot with working out how the stage props would be on stage. Once the stage management crew had taped out the size of the stage and where the screens would be we realised how small an area we had to work with. This meant we had to move all our blocking forward, and realise the front row would be an arms width away from where we would be standing.
After realising this, us three narrators thought it was important to learn to speak in an unintimidating way of speaking. Being so close to children means we need to do this, and also be able to speak loudly enough that the kids at the back could hear... this was all very hard! I'm still not sure if I spoke loud enough at times.
I also decided to hold Ryan M hand as I bought him on stage to reinforce him as a child
Ongoing targets!
To bring James on and the right time by listening carefully for my cue
Get the puppet of Mrs Trotter off quickly by handing it to Thea (Stage Management)
To breathe carefully with my long bit of text as I have a tendency to breathe from my upper chest which makes me strain
As I play Mrs Trotter, I initially thought I'd be 'playing' her as a normal (if small) part, but I was soon informed I would be using a puppet! Panic! I've never done any sort of puppetry other than sock puppets as a toy when I was little.
However, soon I was more interested than worried. Puppetry as a skill could be very useful for an actor, and also brings another dimension to the visuals of the show. I then realized we had already done some puppetry work, or to use the correct term "found puppet" or object manipulation with Chris Davey in our Innovative Theatre class. We used props which had been lying around the studio, such as a walking stick and a giant plastic flower to create small scenarios such as talking at a bus stop. Chris emphasized that your expression and movements should be matched to the movements of the puppet and visa-versa. I found this quite hard to achieve, as manipulating the movements of a tricky puppet plus acting is hard!
I did some research into types of puppets, as at the time we weren't sure what type of puppet we could be using:
Costume puppets
Big Bird from Jim Hensons Sesame Street
Costume puppets are just a puppet that you wear. Most people think of this as a fursuit or mascot, to be worn by a human actor. These types of puppets allow the person inside, and often an animatronics operators on the outside, to create a visually interesting and unusual creature.
For instance, one of the most well-known costume puppets is Big Bird from Sesame Street.
Marionettes
Marionettes are perhaps the most easily recognised of all puppet.
Marionettes, simply put, are puppets which are controlled by strings. The strings are attached to a wooden control, either an ‘upright’, or a ‘horizontal’. An upright control looks kind of like a wooden cross, and a horizontal control is of a similar design, but lying flat. This can range from extremely simple controls, to very complex and hard to manipulate.
Rod puppets
A rod puppet can include a range of things, but generally speaking, it is inclusive of any puppet that uses rods as the sole mechanism for operation.
Rod puppets can of course be used in a variety of theatrical situations, including ‘white light’ theatre (where the puppeteers can be seen), outdoor events, ‘normal’ theatre performances, and so on. This is why rod puppets can be difficult to define, as they are extremely versatile, and don’t require a lot of previous puppetry experience in order to be performed well.
Shadow puppets
Shadow puppets are usually flat silhouettes, made out of a strong animal hide (traditionally speaking), cardboard or plastic (modern versions). These silhouettes can include animal, human and 'creaturistic' figures. The figures have rods attached to the parts that need to be moved, and joints made out of string or wire.
Some figures have rotating or removable rods, in order to facilitate better manipulation, and to allow the silhouette to face different directions. Figures can also be highly simple, with little to no moving parts; or they can include movable limbs, heads, and bodies.
The Trotters scene is tiny, literally one page! But a lot is happening, and quite a lot of implications. James becomes an orphan and two humans are eaten! For children, this needs to be humorous not scary (as much as possible anyway!). The use of puppets will distance the reality of the situation for the children.
We were first informed that we would be using Marionette type '3D' puppets that would represent Mr and Mrs Trotter. We would be facing forward and running away from the Rhino. How the Rhino would be represented wasn't fixed, but there were suggestions of a projection of the Rhino running behind us, or a puppet rhino head held by another actor.
Eventually we were given flat puppets a like mix of costume puppet (as they were attached to our bodies via a hook attached to a bodice) and rod puppet (the arms were hinged and had rods attached to them). The rhino was a simple Rhino shaped cutout with a movable jaw and a red light in its eye, moved by rods.
I was quite disappointed by the puppets. I was expecting properly coloured puppets, or perhaps copies of the Quentin Blake illustrations from the book. The red and blue colours of the parents seemed a bit odd, and the faces of the puppets were identical, which seemed a little odd when a range of emotion could have been portrayed. However, I do think the Rhino was probably the best, as it was simple, menacing yet not scary.
Dahl wrote it in 1961, and centers around a young (seven to be precise) English boy who, having lost his parents in a freak accident involving a rhino, goes to live with his cruel Aunts Sponge and Spiker. He is regularly beaten, and appears to be kept in almost slave like mistreatment.
James meets a strange and unexplained magical old man, who seems to know James plight. The old man gives James a bag of "1000 slimy crocodile tongues" which possess magical properties. James is told to keep them safe, but being in a rush to get back to his home he drops the bag right under an old peach tree.
By the next morning, James Aunt's discover that not only has the previously fruitless tree produced a peach, but the peach wont stop growing! They quickly monopolize the peach, and the paying public come to view the peach.
Meanwhile, James appears not to have returned home, but instead climbs inside the now enormous Peach through a mysterious passage right into the Peach stone. Once there he meets a Grasshopper, Centipede, Spider, Ladybird, Glowworm and Silkworm. All these insects have become enormous and appear to have been given human intellect and power of speech from the magical crocodile tongues James dropped the previous night. The Insects and James cut the giant peach loose and roll down the steep slope from the Aunts house to the sea. Meanwhile, both aunts get squished. Yay!
James is introduced to all the inhabitants, and quickly learns that the insects are far kinder than any humans James had met since his parents died.
Sadly, sharks approach the peach, so James decides to attach the Spiders and Silkworms threads to the necks of seagulls and flies the peach onwards!
Whilst airbourne, the Peach strays into some clouds. In these clouds, the crew of the Peach discover sinister creatures James calls "Cloudmen", who create all sorts of scary meteorological phenomina which the throw down to Earth. James and the crew are pelted with hail stones, but the seagulls drag the peach onwards through the Cloudmen city and right across the Atlantic.
James realises that the peach has been transported all the way to America. The crew all celebrate, but quickly realise the strings attached to the seagulls necks have been slashed by a passing airplane. The peach hurtles downwards, and the all the inhabitants of the Peach believe they are going to die. Luckly though, the Peach lands right atop a building.
The Empire State Building! The crew are brought down and presented to the Mayor of New York, who welcomes them with open arms. All the inhabitants find new jobs, and James lives happily ever after inside the Peach stone, where it has been placed in Central Park. It is revealed that James has in fact written the very story the reader has read.
Reception
Because of the books scary and macabre images it is "a regular target of the censors and is No. 56 on the American Library Association's top 100 list of most frequently challenged books" (1) This is not without reason, and as a company we must remember that our audience is potentially quite young. Some of the aspects which I believe may need to be tackled carefully are as follows:
The Rhino eats James' parents - An utterly terrifying idea even to an adult
The Aunts - James is frequently beaten, verbally abused, overworked and rarely fed. This could be very upsetting to children who will identify with James as he is a young child too. The Aunts are also potentially fear inducing, as they are grotesque and self indulgent to an extreme. This should be treated carefully, and to diffuse the fear factor make them comical not fearful. Personally I think this is one of the problems with the film.
The Cloudmen - Scary weather controlling people in the sky - Whats not to be afraid of? To make them less scary, they should be magical rather than scary, and perhaps even comedic?
The Peach freefalling - this is deadly situation, but hopefully the funny responses of the characters will make it less scary and its short period
