First Block of Script

Now that we have created some images, we are have begun the initial block for the opening section. This post will outline the work that we have done.

At the beginning of the script, the stage directions suggest that their should be an opening sequence before the first line of the play, which introduces the characters. We decided that we wanted to focus on presenting the family relationship. We did this through the idea of introducing Gregor as a marionette which each of the family members took control of in turn. This was not only done to reflect the reliance the family have on Gregor but also show how Gregor allows this reliance without any challenge. The lines that each character says do not come from the script, but were created in relation to each character.

Watching back the section it seems that their was some disparity between the ways in which me and Megan were doing the actions. I was trying to present the loose movement of a real puppet while Megan had chosen a more Staccato movement which I think looks much cleaner. We wanted to introduce the idea also of the bug part of Gregor trying to take over and the struggle between the two sides. Therefore we created a sense of Gregor trying to prevent the bugs movements. I wonder however, if it would make more sense having this idea the other way round. As Gregor becomes more buglike, he is less able to help the family in the way that he used to, so it might make more sense that the insect side of him is the result of his limited movement.

I like this idea of representing the way Gregor realised he had become an insect through the use of an unsuspecting second pair of arms, however the transition into this seems too messy. Furthermore, although it wasn't clear with this run, we had began to experiment with sharing out the lines to both sides of Gregor. This sense of duality in voice, presents the conflict that also exists in his mind. I think that layering parts of the same line could be effective, as we could try overlaying drawn out sounds to get this sense of the insects buzz.

Based off our earlier experimentation, we decided to incorporate the table into our piece in order to use it in places such as this section, as the train that Gregor takes to work every morning. The table then became a tableaux of Gregors home life, with the insect side of Gregor representing him in the scene. We tried to cement this idea for the audience through the unison of the line "so they rely on me totally."

The line "He recently made a picture" is one of the only moments where you can see the style that we are trying to portray through the vocalisation and staccato movement of creating it. For this block, it was more important to get the basic ideas for the scene down, but for our next rehearsal I think we need to begin layering in more Berkoff features, exploring vocalisation and trying to impose more of the Berkoff physicality into the piece.