Within the ensemble

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.

Movement and Vocal Skills to develop the character

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

1. Expression (Shock wide mouth, fear trembling, annoyance tapping my foot)
2. Vocal pace (Surprise! Worriedness. Annoyance!)
3. Interaction with other narrators (Grabbing someones hand in fear, kneeling down in fear, touching arm to reassure)
4. Posture (Openness - broad arm movement and open chest, fear - slouched shoulders, closed arms for protection)
5. Voice tone 
6. Pitch
7. Tempo (fast for fear or excitment, slow for soothing)
8. Volume (Telling a story compared quietly)
9. Use of breath sounds (emotional expression, shouting for joy, breathy for fear)
10. 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.

Our poster!

Photos of our rehearsal process

Scene 8 - The End

Ongoing targets for this scene

• 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

Scene Five - The ship

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.

Scene four - SHARKS!

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)

Scene Three - The Peach Breaks Free

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!)

Scene Two - James and the tunnel

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

Scene Two - The Peach

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