Tuesday 20th January 2015 - Blocking Act 1 Of Our Country's Good

Tuesday 20th January 2015
Blocking Act 1 Of Our Country's Good

The boat scene - Today we started blocking the first three scenes of the show after reading through a few more scenes. In the first scene we are forming the front of the ship, I am one of the people that is cramped together in the ship. We were swaying slightly to show the movement of the ship against the sea, we also had to create a sound scape that consisted of praying, coughing and crying. This is because the convicts have been kept in poor conditions for months at sea, illness and diseases have been passed from person to person, many people feel desperate, scared and lonely. This shows the audience a more realistic view of what a 1700s convict ship would be like rather than just showing the flogging scene, this gives an idea of the rest of the ship as well. When the ship gets to Australia we have to walk off of the ship, looking around as they are in an unfamiliar place and they don't know what to expect from this new place. As I walk up to Amber I have to take her stick and this becomes my gun for the next scene, between these two scenes I change characters. This scene is based on using physical theatre because using this skill expands our knowledge of different skills used by successful theatre companies.

The shooting scene - In this scene Arthur Phillip, David Collins and Watkin Tench are shooting birds we use bamboo sticks instead of guns because it symbolises the English taking over the Aborigines land and culture. As well as this It shows that the English took whatever they wanted off of them as if it was their own country. I stand in front of the other men because my character is of a higher authority than them. I also give my bamboo stick to Harry Brewer because he is a lower status than me, so therefore I have other people who do things for me, such as hold my things when I no longer want to. Every time somebody spots something new, we all have to look at it in amazement this is to show that this is a completely new place that they had never been before. This is important tat we all use different facial expressions in this scene because the audience need to understand that they are exited but a little nervous about being in an unfamiliar country. When my character shoots a bird all of the other men congratulate me, this is because they want to make sure that I am kept happy so that their positions are not at stake. Because my character is in charge of everyone else, all of the other captains know that I make decisions so as long as the keep themselves quite and follow the rules nothing bad will happen to them.