MISSION STATEMENT

This is our mission statement from a while ago.

Our Shakespeare re-imagination of Much Ado About Nothing is set in a historical context of Auschwitz Concentration Camp. This is an innovative new take on the plot-line of Beatrice and Benedick, entwined with a real life story from within the camp. A major aim of the production is to inform and explore the nature of humanity with our audience, in a participative role. The style of this piece is dark and naturalistic with undertones of tragedy; a dark adaptation of the original play.

RADIO 4 INTERVIEW

Female Auschwitz survivor - Kitty Hart-Moxon

I listened to a radio interview from an Auschwitz survivor Kitty Hart-Moxon. These are the notes that I made from this:
She remembers everything that happened prior to being taken. She and her mother had moved from her home town into another town where they were found out by the female citizens that they worked with. Kitty said that they the reason that they were turned in was because it seemed that the women that worked with them were jealous because she and her mother could both speak perfect German and also had an office job compared to them working in the factory. The women worked out that Kitty and her mother were not from there because they had a slightly different accent.

Only Kitty's mother survived with her. Her father was shot, her brother was called for the army and her grandmother had to be left behind.

Kitty knew nothing about Auschwitz before she got there.

Women were better at looking after each other - they helped each other out even though conditions for women were a lot worse than what they were for men. The women would try and make 'friendship groups' of about 4-5 women that all had different skills and jobs. For example in her 'friendship group' one of the females worked by the lavatories, one with the clothes and one was a nurse.

Nobody was at all confident that they would survive - "the only way out is through the chimney. And we all knew what that meant.", "Each day we stayed alive was a gift."

When she got to England after they were set free, Kitty had a horrendous time. No body wanted to know what had happened to her, people would refuse to talk about it and would whisper behind her back about the tattoo on her arm. It took 10 years for somebody to ask question about what happened. Kitty was angry that no body seemed to care and them refusing to even try and understand.

Kitty now goes around teaching children and young adults in order to help them understand and know about the events to try and prevent it from ever happening again.

Production meeting

AGENDA

 

Bring in text-copy of the text
Rehearsing on wednesday
Cast list
Presentation
Characters

Today- characters
Lesson times and the wed 2-6
Tomorrow- presentation
Wed lesson- text
Wed afternoon- presentation
Thurs lesson- text (bringing the text to life)
Friday lesson- casting and characters.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b037v8vs

 

We have organised it like this so that we can get our funding pitch sorted and out of the way to then begin to concentrate on ideas of which angle we wish to take.

 

Today's Rehearsal

Today in the rehearsal we work shopped 3 ideas.

The first one that we did was Elsa's idea:

Elsa came up with this idea from something that we did at SAS on Monday. It was about people leading others using their hand on the back of their neck (it is an exercise in pairs). At first we took it softly and gently to allow everyone to get used to it (those of us that had done it before led the others that hadn't) then we picked up the pace and made it a bit rougher either by using more force or controlling them by holding their shoulders. Once everyone was used to this, we then developed it so that the people that were controlling would walk up behind someone and mould them into a position before moving them.
The aim of this exercise was to portray oppression.
We did indeed feel oppressed. You also felt very insecure, unsure, disoriented and you had no choice but to be submissive. Rose said it looked strong and powerful.

The next idea was from Daisy:

Daisy asked us all to stand in a line one behind the other and to put both our hands on the person in front shoulders. The person at the back leads. Everyone apart from the leader was to close their eyes and you had to follow the direction that the person behind you would pull you towards.

The last idea was from James:

Again James got us all to stand in a line one behind the other with our eyes closed holding on to the next persons shoulders. This time James was ordering us around, telling us when to stop and when to go.

Today's rehearsal was good as we managed to stick to our aim which was to workshop 3 different ideas. It has also opened up some ideas that we may want to develop further and delve into, for instance I really like Elsa's idea with the oppression and I think that if we worked on it and developed it, it could work really nicely for either of the concepts that we are exploring this week (Auschwitz and Witch Trials) .
The concept of James' input was good for the Auschwitz idea with him in command and essentially controlling us. In addition, I did like Daisy's input also. Again, if we were to adapt and develop it further it may again work for either adaptation.  

Monday's production meeting

We sorted out what dates and times that we are going to rehearse:
WEDNESDAY's - 14oo-18oo
This is the only extra rehearsal that we have so far but we have decided that as we progress we will extend out Thursday's rehearsal until 18oo.
We have further decided that we will be rehearsing Thursday the 10th from 10-3 and also Thursday 17th from 10-3. We will extend these rehearsals if needed.
Aim for the end of the week:
-To have decided which idea we are going with.
-Workshop different ideas.

HELPFUL RESOURCES

Music Week

Bitannica Online

UK Newsstand

Digital Theatre Plus

Nostalgia

Themes:

From the moment the messenger informs Leonato of Claudio's glorious feats in the recent war, Much Ado abounds in references to the past and passing of time. This creates a lingering nostalgia for another and better age, which the prominent contrast between the elderly and youthful characters strengthens, making the reconciliations of the final act more momentous.

Beatrice and Benedick dwell on the past, recent and remote, actual and legendary. She inveighs against the hypocrisy of men who swagger like classical heroes and pretend to an honour their action does not support. Her prejudice is confirmed when Hero is denounced. Her oxymoron 'valiant dust' juxtaposes pretence and reality. Benedick's recollection of his military past contains a spark of antique glory. He contrasts its manly simplicity with effeminate romantic love: 'he was wont to speak plain and to the purpose (like an honest man and a soldier) and now he is turned orthography'. Contrasted with a soldier's freedom and adventure - the hunt, womanising, target shooting, drinking - are domestic boredom and servitude, 'thrust thy neck into a yoke, wear the print of it, and sigh away Sunday's'.
Beatrice and Benedick are energetic social critics. They yearn for past glory, which is the standpoint of their cutting satiric humour. Through the Watch wider satiric comment is made on the degeneracy of the age - the worship of fashion, the arrogance of power, the decay of morals. 

The 'merry war' between Beatrice and Benedick is playful and diverting, unlike the real pain which Claudio inflicts upon Hero in the name of honour. In their witty phrases, insults and ripostes a delight in the shaping of the language takes the sting from its tail. Their language roots them firmly in the present. When they confess their love for each other Benedick begins ironically, unable to make himself entirely seriously as a lover: is not a lover a fictional construction, he appears to inquire, required to behave in absurd, predictable ways? Therefore, he asks Beatrice, only half seriously, what wonders he, as gallant lover, can perform for her. Her 'kill Claudio' takes him aback, therefore, as it exacts commitment to an heroic ideal - protection of the weak by the strong, avenging dishonour. Both, through their nostalgia for the whole-heartedness of the past, commit themselves to action in the present, which gives their love vitality and their commitment to each other meaning.

The roughness in which Beatrice exacts the promise and Benedick challenges Claudio and repudiates Don Pedro bespeaks their sincerity. Otherwise, their language has the wit and style of those removed from the stresses of life, steeped in the literature of the past. 'Is not that strange?' Benedick asks rhetorically as he confesses his love and 'for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?' he inquires once they are betrothed. He savours her metaphor when she in turn asks, 'for which of my good parts did you first suffer love for me?'. They agree finally to love each other 'no more than reason' reconciled to the changes of time and nature, since 'man is a giddy thing'.

Their wit has been softened, not lost. Although the code of honour has not entirely been rejected, since the romantic lovers do in the end marry once Hero is vindicated, it has been challenged and renewed. Claudio's and Leonato's insensitivity has exposed the destructiveness of a nostalgic adherence to an archaic code. Beatrice and Benedick love with an intensity they imagined was an aspect of former times. Although their literary style both establishes a continuity with the past and detaches them from their own passions, their involvement in the present is enhanced.

Definitions:
NOSTALGIA: a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past.
INVEIGH: to protest strongly or attack vehemently with words
EFFEMINATE: (of man or boy) having traits, tastes, habits etc., traditionally considered feminine, as softness or delicacy.
ORTHOGRAPHY:  the art of writing words with the proper letters, according to accepted usage: correct spelling.
ADHERENCE: the quality of adhering; steady devotion, support, allegiance, or attachment.
ARCHAIC: marked by characteristics if an earlier period.

YORK NOTES.

'Much Ado is concerned with the 'mundane' in love and that it is the first play in which the differences of male and female worlds are prominent and the female predominates.' 

TO REMEMBER!

1) What is the story we want to tell?

IN CONJUNCTION WITH

2) How do you want to tell it?

FOLLOWED CLOSE BEHIND BY

3) Why do you want to tell it?

THIS THEN LEADS TO

4) What effect do you want to have on your audience?

FOLLOWED BY

5) How will you create that effect?

We need to answer these questions once we have decided which idea we are going with. This will help us as it will force us to think about plot, context and our audience. 

Viel Larm um nichts

 REHEARSAL:

Today we developed all 3 ideas.
Yesterday, Elsa brought in a song as a stimulus to go alongside James concept of Auschwitz.
"Ah poor bird,
Take thy flight,
High above the sorrows
Of this dark night"

Idea 1: AUSCHWITZ:

James brought in a true story about one of the holocaust survivors.
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http://muchadoparrettjung.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/much-ado-about-nothing-idea.html
From this we were thinking about how the woman and the guard could represent Beatrice and Benedict. The reason we thought this is because their love is not really supposed to happen and shouldn't happen but still it does. Further, the woman testifies for the guard at his war crimes trial (even though nothing more happened between them) this shows that their love was strong despite everything she saw him do.
Hero and Claudio could represent the sisterly love.

Idea 2: WITCH TRIALS

This was Elsa's input: Elsa wanted to go through the route of how Hero is automatically accused of adultery without a fair trail and without her being able to say otherwise. This links to the mistreatment of women and how they are seen as possessions. She looked back into history and found that the miss cause of justice links back to innocent women being wrongly accused of witchcraft.

Idea 3: ADULTERY 

Natalie's thoughts were about again how Hero is accused of adultery mixed with feminism and how back in the 1900s onwards to about 1940s women were seen as housewives expected to do all the house work and rearing the children and looking after her husband. In addition, the representation of adultery in the media is usually stereotyped as it is the men causing the upset however in Much Ado About Nothing is it infact Hero that has supposedly been 'cheating'.

Holocaust poems

The first one is about love. Good stimulus' for ideas.
http://www.thehypertexts.com/Holocaust%20Poetry%20Michael%20R.%20Burch%20Auschwitz%20Rose.htm

Idea number 2

Witch craft trials. Elsa's idea.
Hero is accused of adultery without trial and without being able to testify her case - linking to witch craft trials and how that if you were accused of being a witch there was no way around it.

Buzzing!

I am absolutely BUZZING for this! Brilliant ideas today, will post up the recording later