BTEC Drama

From studying Berkoff, I have been able to learn things about the devising process which will be useful in future units. Experimentation and play seems like a key part of the berkoff style, as it pushes emotion and physicality beyond the bounds of normality and into the surreal and sometimes bizarre. Only by experimenting with vocal tone and gesture, and stepping out of your comfort can you emulate this style in a way that does it justice. What's more, giving time to experimentation before you begin blocking the piece, does a lot for supporting the blocking process and it is clear in our performance that experimentation was a great influence.   Another thing which has been important during the process is drawing on our understanding of Frantic Assembly style physical theatre, for which the style of play is very important. In some situations the practice of creating movement before meaning made creating the piece much easier. However this was only used for small sections or pla...

For our version of Metamorphosis, we originally took inspiration of the set from the original Berkoff play, which created this frame which allowed for great exploration into the movement of the main character Gregor. We initially created a set which looked like this\; However, we found that this often restricted our movements as we limited ourselves to movement either on the lower or raised stage and were unsure how to overcome this. As we began to experiment more with the script however, and began to try and create images, our experimentation helped us to create a much smaller but more integrated and accessible set that we have used in the final performance. It began with the work we did whilst experimenting with movement and set. Through exploring the way we could integrate a table into our images it helped to pave the way for incorporating it into scenes. We chose the walkway shape as our basis set as it allowed us to experiment with levels without feeling confined b...

    Blacks, Whites and Greys are the main variations for many of Berkoff’s plays, particularly the Kafka adaptations. You can see from looking at some of his productions that they hold this deep underlying darkness beneath the humour and that sometimes the exaggeration works to create jarring characters so unfitting with ourselves that it makes use feel unsettled.  Within a style with such possibility for being sinister, the choice of costume is very important. For our costumes we chose to use all black clothing, in recognition of the style. Berkoff believed that colour could be distracting. He said that “ colours can interfere unless they have a purpose, a point”.  And this makes sense, anything bright in a style that already shocks the senses must have a reason, in theme with the idea of total theatre, or it could appear garish and overwhelming. Examples of where we did this can be seen more in our use of face paint in the piece rathe...