site specific blog

please ensure you click on the older posts part at the bottom to look at my research

evaluation of performance

29th April
Today was our performance, it went rather well from my point of view as we performed a good show which was enjoyed by both the community arts practice strand and members of the public, my group were the first to perform on Shannon's round which was nice because our piece was all about the changes to Croydon and Real Croydonians opinion on the changes to Croydon in the last 100 years mixed with our own research which set up the theme to the audience about what the site specific performance was all about, our piece has changed quite a bit over the last couple of weeks because of many different things one being the amount of members we had from our group turning up each week on time, watching other groups performances and feedback we have received from Emma and Gruff Theatre.
The first performance went fairly well and I tried to include and remember all of the feedback we received yesterday about it and how we could improve it today. My character was fairly strong in this performance however I found the escalator section a bit embarrassing because I had to be extremely dramatic whilst coming down with two teenage girls who seemed extremely worried about my mental state! I was fairly confident in the courtyard talking and insulting but felt that I wasn't as strong and as characteristic as I could have been which is why I tried to improve this in the second performance. The transition between our performance and the next group on the benches went quite fluidly and you could see that we were all trying to keep our characterisation going however we were definitely unsure about whether we should be enjoying all of the music especially the more modern music as our characters may not however I think that was just each actors decision and I think we all just went with the music and tried to interact and engage the audience into the other groups piece.

The second performance was definitely a lot more cleaner and ran smoother, the escalator piece was a lot more engaging for the audience as I was more comfortable to look like a mad woman! The walking round seemed to be a lot better as well mainly because I knew for definite what I was saying and how an audience of that size would now react because I had the experience of the first performance. The transition between our piece and the bench group seemed cleaner and smoother as well as we were able to really get into their music as we weren't worried about having to perform again.
The second performance ended with all of us and the audience in the forum exhibition shop and us delivering our poem, this was really nice because it brought us all together and we were able to share our ideas of the site and of Croydon through Shannon's poem with our audience. However If I did this performance again I would definitely have worked more with my group on our poem because I felt that we didn't put enough feeling/meaning into what we were saying and therefore it felt like we were just saying the poem because we had to. However the audience when speaking to them about feedback they didn't feel this so perhaps it is just my view.

The audiences feedback:

• really liked the contrast between scenes because some were funny, some were more informative, some told us stories and other just insulted us!
•  it was really nice to see that you all thought so much of what is actually a really tiny area but a big story surrounds it
• I was amazed when you said that you had only been working in the site for a few months because it all fitted so well with the surroundings and made us feel included in your journey into finding out about Croydon
• I really liked the performances because they all told us something different about Croydon and the people who live here
• it really makes me proud to be living in Croydon when you find out about all of the things that have happened here
• it was nice to have the performances in Croydon about Croydon and by Croydon students - not many students at the Brit school realise that they are going to part of Croydons history.

It was really interesting listening to this feedback and discussing the project with the yr 12's especially because they are going to have to do this unit next year meaning that they were able to think about what they would do if they wee given this site.

I really enjoyed today and doing the performances, Site specific has not always been easy especially in creating my groups performance however it has been an extremely valuable unit to cover because it has taught me a lot about site specific theatre, engaging an audience in your performance and really looking at the surroundings of your performance space as well as including even simple things like context, architecture and people.

making the performance

our performance space:

1st April
Today we worked with Polly from Gruff theatre company, we told her about our idea to use the pillar to create a performance piece around the shopping experience over the past 100 years.
She suggested we started by walking around the courtyard square by our shop unit, at first it was just natural we looked at each other when walking past but had no emotions, she then said that we should try and ignore each other and not come into contact with each other at all, after this we did the opposite we had to smile and greet each other when passing. From doing this exercise it made us think about the change in communication and community over the past 100 years, how we act now compared to how people acted then towards their fellow shoppers.
From this exercise Amber discovered that from certain points in the courtyard you were shielded from view, thus making blind spots the most predominate one was standing behind the white pillars at the top of the courtyard, here no one could be seen or see anyone. From this we played a game where you had to hide from everyone else using the blind spots. Although this was fun I am not sure if the audience would totally understand the underlying meaning of playing such a game.
We also wanted to look at the different types of people you see in Croydon, also inspired by the picture of the people in 2012 and the people in the 40's and the way people dress to shop- in the 20,40 and even 60's people dressed up in dresses, suits and even Sunday best to go to the shops where as now many of the people in the photo were wearing jeans, hoodies, tracksuit bottoms, and trainers.
We had the idea of having large pieces of clothing such as a large laminated/cardboard tie and people walking around the courtyard acting as that person however because Emma said she would like us to incorporate post-it notes into our performances I suggested we drew the clothing onto post-it notes which the audience pick up and stick to their chest, the idea of clothing developed further and we came up with the idea of them having emotions and ways of walking as well as the clothing on the post-it notes which the audience can pick off the plinth and then walk around the courtyard doing. we tried this activity out and it was actually really fun, I had a tie which I associated with business man, then I had the word 'staggering' so I decided to act drunk which other groups found very funny.
our plan:

• audience walk around the courtyard, they have to just walk how they natural would
• the audience are then asked the following questions by us: what did you do? how did you feel? 
• we then write their answers on post-it notes and stick it on the block, there will also be some post-it notes already on the block that have emotions, props, costume and ways to walk.
• the audience all receive a post-it note and have to walk around again but this time doing what their post-it note says.
• we will then all come back to the plinth and have a discussion about the activity: questions we will ask:

1. did you feel more like a community/ more together the first time or the second time you walked around?
2. did your post-it note RULE affect the pace of your walk?
3. did your RULE make you see things you didn't see the first time?
4. how do you think the shopping experience has changed over the past 100 years?

• we will then give them some facts about the change of the shopping experience over the past 100 years
• as an extra extension to our piece we will have a board with the pictures we are using as stimulus for our piece and have some post-it notes available for our audience to leave their response to our picture.

things we will need:

• post-it notes
• big sheets of white paper to cover boards
• pens
• stimulus pictures
• large display board

 

8th April
Today we filled out a risk assessment for our site specific performance, it was quite interesting doing a risk assessment on our space because there are actually quite a lot of hazards even though most of them are only medium or low risk and most risk to the performers rather than the audience. My group were not very interested in filling out the risk assessment because they wanted to get on with creating the performance therefore I felt like it was left to me to fill out the sheet and then discuss it with them, gathering their opinions on whether a risk was high or medium or low and what it changed to when we put prevention measures in place.


15th April
Today we discussed what we had worked on with Polly previously and what pieces we wanted to use and what more we wanted to do.

Between last Tuesday and today we have all been discussing our performance because we feel that after seeing the other two groups amazing "performance" pieces we felt that ours felt a bit too workshop based and it didn't totally fit with the idea of Shannon reading the poem in-between scenes therefore we started to discuss our original idea of having each of us dressed up (in costume) in a different era/ time period. I suggested the following plan:
We all start in front of the pillar and pretend we are shopping in our era and then we take the audience on a walk each in our eras and get each audience group (split audience into 4 groups) to go on two era walks and write down on post-it notes the difference, and as we finish each era walk we have a little monologue each about shopping in our era. then we go on to a discussion session between ourselves and the audience.


Although my group quite liked the idea of dressing up and pretending to be olden days people they were not quite sure what we would speak about so we spent the beginning of the lesson discussing how we could merge both what we did with GRUFF Theatre and the dressing up idea.
we decided that we should use a spokenword/poem as a way of getting our message across about old vs new Croydon and linking it to Shannon's poem about the new Croydon.
the poem:
did people use to greet each other as they passed,
well come on now did you really think that was going to last,
but when was the exact moment in society when everything went wrong,
maybe when communities forgot to be strong,
they exchange a look barely a glance,
today's society doesn't stand a chance.

originally we added dialogue between myself and Hannah as the olden days characters that walked around the pillar and greeted each other however GRUFF theatre said that they thought it needed to be less static and move around and also that we needed to interact with our audience more, therefore we decided that we should change it by having myself and Maria as the olden days people as part of the audience and that we start having a disagreement with the poets. To make it less static we also decided to include a tour of the courtyard area were myself and Maria talk to the audience about how the shopping experience and fashion has changed over the last 100 years, especially post WW2.
Shona has also joined our group, so we needed to add her in, whilst we have already set the poem and the tours, we decided that we needed an end speech to close the piece so this is what Shona is going to devise and perform.

plan:
poem
tours
shona speech

Shannon's poem:
The Croydon Facelift
'It's a bit shit really, isn't it?' my friend mumbles as we sit on a
park bench huddled close together underneath my umbrella shielding
ourselves from the soft pitter patter of the rain.
And I look, and then I look again, trying to see the place I call my
'home' from inside my friend's brain.
Grey. Like the colour of the malnourished, admittedly quite tatty
looking pigeons who at this moment are pecking at a leftover
McDonald's chip lying sodden in a puddle. And I'll admit that it must
be a struggle to see that beauty lies within this concrete jungle.
'I mean, look, someone's graffitied 'tits' on the wall, used their
right to freedom of expression in a way that's definitely not
beneficial. But that's Croydon for you, bit dingy - just the way I
recall.' And I look over the writing emblazoned with a statement about
the female anatomy and see that actually underneath it someone's
scribbled 'Jenny 4 Matty' in a black ink biro - and I see it. I see
that the place in which I'm sat with my friend complaining was at one
point a place where love was claiming the hearts of those two people.
Not, as it is now, a spot for the downright miserable.
The saddest part is that as my friend rants on about how this place is
cold and bleak and how its' people brush past each other without
acknowledgement even though we're all cheek to cheek - I realise that
her opinion is representative. It's representative of a community
that's falling rapidly out of love with their surroundings, drowning
in corporate businesses, marbled flooring and monochrome colour
schemes abounding.
The cracked pavements that I walk across every day come to symbolise
to me that jagged structure of Croydon's insular world of outward
sighs and dismay. The wind echoing the whispers if a community
desperate to bask in the warmth of a collective spirit again.
It's undeniably fragile.
But fragility is underrated in a society that glorifies a faster pace
of life. One that doesn't allow for an inhalation of Millies Cookies
freshly baking, or stopping to pause and listen to the sound of the
Surrey Street market stall holders and the human vocal orchestra of
'bananas for a pound!' that they're creating.
Croydon has become the broken heart within the body of London. A heart
that those with the power believed can be fixed with a materialistic
'investment shower'. Or maybe even a heart transplant, surgically
removing the little tiny details that make this place who we are and
what it is, replacing it consumerist bliss - Croydon's very own face
lift.
We're a place continuously evolving, problem solving, trying to keep
up with the rapid revolving doors of Social Change. We're not a heart
that needs to be fixed with stitches of construction, or a triple
bypass of new cutting edge shopping centres, transport systems and
destruction.
We're a heart that needs to be reminded that it's okay to have broken,
because surrey as we heal we recognise that beauty that's oozing from
our home town. It's there in the monthly food markets celebrating the
rich and diverse cultures that peacefully coincide, in the first dates
that take place within the walls of Grants Cinema, in local people
flogging down buses for breathless mums pushing buggies with their
babies, food shopping bags and pureed baby-food jars.
Because when we pay close attention, we can see Croydon has soul.
Thousands of stories cling to the exterior, desperate to be heard -
desperate to be told.
So look around you and see the traces of our history, a jumble sale of
memories, a flea market of hopes and dreams, in a transitional period
where no-one's sure it will lead.
And although a period of change is edging its way closer still, we
cannot allow our community to topple backwards downhill.
Instead, we must clutch onto the delicate strings that hold it all
together, a silent understanding between us all that Croydon will
remain strong under the pressure. We will continue to thrive, and we
will get better.


22nd April
We rehearsed the plan we created last week however when we performed it to different GRUFF theatre members they said that it still felt a bit spaced out and that we needed to work on transitions.
We had the idea of my character coming down the escalator going crazy at the "moving stairs" as the escalators are a fairly modern product as they were only introduced to the centre in 1968, however we also needed a way of engaging the audience into this so we used Shona as a market trader to gather the audience and exit up the escalators as my character came down. To link the poem section to the tours we decided as a group to talk about the audiences "bad" and "modern" clothing and critique them on their clothing chooses and then take them around the shops as a way of showing them how to actually dress yet when we do tour we are actually appalled by what we see in the shops we pass.

28th April
We spent the time today rehearsing and putting the final little elements into our performance, As my group thought that we were pretty stable on what we were doing for the performance we believed that we just needed to run it a few times to ensure that it worked effectively however once Gruff and Emma had watched it and given their feedback we realised that it needed quite a bit of work on it because we had lost the reason behind the action and what we were trying to portray to the audience seemed to have drifted away between our initial plan and today's rehearsal, we were also given the feedback that it needed to be exaggerated a lot more and that I in particular needed to commit more to my character and to what I was actually trying to say to the audience when taking them on the journey around the courtyard area and whilst coming down the escalator. I took this feedback on and really tried to work on my entire performance however I found it rather frustrating at times because members of my team were not as enthusiastic about the performance as they could have been which prevented us from all fully putting all our effort into the rehearsals. We next worked on Shannon's poem and each group was given a verse from the poem to transform into a performance the verse my group was given was:
We're a place continuously evolving, problem solving, trying to keep
up with the rapid revolving doors of Social Change. We're not a heart
that needs to be fixed with stitches of construction, or a triple
bypass of new cutting edge shopping centres, transport systems and
destruction.
we decided that we would repeat certain words within the verse that stood out to us and we broke the verse down into lines each:
shona: We're a place continuously evolving, problem solving
all: evolving problem solving
Maria: trying to keep up with the rapid revolving doors of Social Change.
all: change
Hannah: We're not a heart that needs to be fixed with stitches of construction
all: construction
Rebekah: or a triple
bypass of new cutting edge shopping centres, transport systems and destruction.
all: destruction, destruction, destruction, destruction

we added small movements to each repeat however Gruff theatre said that they didn't think it was engaging enough and that they thought it needed to include more of a site specific base behind it, we decided to spread out in the shop and play with interacting with the audience this seemed more effective however we wanted to show that we were all one in Croydon so we all came together at the end and played with different ways of saying destruction and construction working on the difference between the meaning of these words.

whilst today was difficult in terms of peoples lack of enthusiasm I am looking forward to performing tomorrow especially after rehearsing all day today.

risk assessment (extra risk)
hazard- escalator
risk- Rebekah: falling down , getting caught
L,M,H?- High
measure put in place already: big red stop buttons at top and bottom of escalator, bannister attached to escalator
measure put in place by us: Maria stood at bottom and shona will reach top of escalator as Rebekah comes down so they are there to press button if needed. warn security staff that we will be acting so they don't worry about Rebekah screaming for help! Rebekah will wear flat shoes
LMH?- L

interviewing people about Croydon and the Whitgift Centre

11th February
In today's lesson we created posters to ask the people of Croydon to come and be interviewed  at our shop on Friday 28th February or give their stories to us via email, phone or twitter.

twitter:
BRITSchoolCAP we've just named our site specific show #therootsofcroydon

email: ebaggott@brit.croydon.sch.uk

phone: 0208 665 5242

poster:

28th February

Unfortunately we were unable to interview people in Croydon today although I did have a lovely conversation with a lady called Jean who is in her late 70's about her experience of growing up in Croydon whilst we waited, however whilst it was really nice to hear Jean's story and find out her memories of Croydon, it was a shame that we wasted nearly 2 hours just sat outside the shop, when we could have spent that time going around Croydon and seeing if people would be willing to answer our questions. However I am sure we will get an opportunity to do this before we start the devising of our performances as by asking theses questions we will be able to hear real experiences of Croydon as a home as well as being a shopping centre.

Jean's story
I remember Croydon in the late 40's mostly when I was about 6 or 7 is my first memory of Croydon, with the cars driving right through the town centre not like now where people have to walk everywhere! Croydon's always been my home, my first job was selling toys in a little shop down where the tram goes and then when the Whitgift Centre opened I got a job selling posh frocks and glamorous hats for weddings and christenings, my mother was not very impressed with this though, she didn't like the Whitgift centre said it would soon close down. I come to the Whitgift now just to do the odd bit of shopping its nice that you can buy everything in one place, I usually end up popping into Sainsbury's or Marks and Spenser's just to get some bits once I've brought my wool and everything else.

18th March

today we went to Croydon and interviewed/asked questions to people we could catch in the Whitgift Centre, although I did go in and "pounce" on many elderly people whilst they had a little sit down and a break from shopping (which I feel guilty about) many of them did seem quite happy to answer our questions, below are our findings. Out of all of the people we asked to answer our questions only one lady was happy to be voice recorded which was a shame for us as it means that we may lose some of the detail of the conversation. from our findings we discovered that people had either lived in Croydon since birth or had only recently (in the last 5 years) moved to the area because of the cheaper cost of living and housing and that there is a real divide between those who call this their home because of heritage and those who call this their home for now.

voice recording from interview number 3

 

Replies to the questions:

'use to have loads of fashion shows'
'there's no community anymore...people especially different generations don't interact'
'we were brought up that you had to give the elderly your seat and young people don't have such courtesy anymore'
'we need to bring the community together again we need something that brings everything together'
'see very little at the Fairfield and its supposed to be a pillar of our community'
'we use to mend and wear.. making sheets out of white flour bags.. how many kids can actually cook a meal now?'
'its got a lot busier'
'shops have changed they've become much more commercial.. no personality these days'
'its good that its busy but that brings us trouble'
'so commercialised, there's no greenery'
'its packed now especially because of the immigration'
'I'd really like to see different arts'
'we use to have a drumming centre' 

croydon shoppers over the past 100 years

11th February


In the lesson today we spent time looking at the ideas for performances we could create, within small groups of 4-5 we had to think of an idea for a performance piece, as I have previously put ideas here on my blog about what we could do in a small performance and with the aid of the photos and quotes found in the forum exhibition I suggested we created a performance piece about the shoppers and shopping experience over the past 100 years within Croydon.


we choose four periods/eras in the last 100 years to portray, choosing time periods when the shopping experienced changed or developed.

 

Early 1900's

in these two pictures you can see the fashion of people in the early 1900's, the fashion seen seems to still have the feel of the Victorian Era.

 

in these two pictures you can see the fashions of the 1920's when women fashion especially started to change, this is also the time when Women started to buy clothes rather than make it/have it made which started the boom for clothing shops.

 

 

 

1920's

 

 

 

1940's -1950's

 

 here you can see the fashion of the 1940's, during WW2 fashion reverted back to making your own as many clothing shops were closed, women took on the task of "making do and mending" clothing whilst still keeping up with the latest fashions, women created new clothing out of old clothing and material, making beautiful creations (dresses) as seen in the image below.

 

 

 

1960's-1980's

 

 

 

the 1960's were a time of change for fashion and retail, clothing became manufactured in factories and the idea of shops that only sold clothes boomed. with London's oxford street leading in grand success Croydon followed the ideas of London retailers and the Whitgift centre was built offering hundreds of shoppers the experience to shop for the first time  "hand to clothing" choosing and trying on anything they could find in the shop in over a 50 stores throughout Croydon. 

 

the experience of shopping had changed, it wasn't just the women shopping but the men, families, friends and young people too. The Whitgift centre didn't just offer a place to shop it offered a place to socialise with the opening of cafes.

 

 

 

 

2000-Now

 

Since Croydon had changed to a place for fashion, eating and socialising it was in many peoples eyes set for success as a place of interest and enjoyment. The Whitgift centre was soon joined by the Centrale centre and both were booming in success at the beginning of 2000. However, the country in the past few years has been through a lot of money troubled times including the credit crunch and the recession as well as the 2011 riots meaning that shops and businesses in Croydon missed out and lost a lot of money resulting in the closure of many stores and businesses in the area. Therefore in the past year Croydon has been offered a boost with the planning permission for Westfield's shopping centre to build in Croydon taking over the Whitgift centre and Centrale therefore it will be interesting to see how Croydon develops in the next 100 years.  

 

As a group we decided to break up these different era's between us combining the early 1900's with the 1920's. We thought about having each era's representative in a different corner of our space in the Whitgift centre dong their "shopping" and then having them all meet and play out different events that have happened throughout the past 100 years.

 

the ideas:

 

•Croydon over the years

•How people shop

•Characteristics of different shoppers

•Fashion in the different era's

•Marks and spencer's as a central part as its been in the same plot for many decades.

•Shopping experience and how its changed

 research into era's

 



 

I have found this website for Francis Frith which allows us to look at pictures and maps of Croydon over he past 100 years. http://www.francisfrith.com/croydon,surrey/#utmcsr=google.co.uk&utmcmd=referral&utmccn=google.co.uk

 

by looking at these pictures and maps it allows us to see especially in the early 19 hundreds what the streets looked like thus giving us an idea about what the shops would look like and the amount of retailer shops were available.

 

 

 

 

 

visit to the forum exhibition

4th February 2014

In todays lesson we visited the forum exhibition by Josh a architect graduate, we were looking at all of the images, comments, stories, names and stories created in the exhibition, and left by visitors to the exhibition.

I found looking at all lf the images and reading peoples comments and stories extremely interesting it was really nice to see all of the positive and negative events that have created Croydon into what it is today.

We looked at the structure, the layout, the differences, the fashion and the events.

Here are the images and stories and comments I found most interesting:

  

Marks and Spenser's NOW and THEN
  

I chose this image because I really like the similarities and differences between them, they are both images of Marks and Spenser's in the same place. in the first/top image it s 2013 and there is only one elderly lady looking into the shop however the image is more lighted and the advertising of both the shop brand and the events in the whitgift centre is more visible.
The bottom image is much more populated and looks a lot more friendly with images of friends all going out to the centre together.





The Whitgift centre in celebration NOW and THEN

stain glass window

In this image you can see the centre of the whitgift centre whilst in decoration.
the top image is of the 2013 whitgift centre with Christmas decoration up all over the centre, the decorations are very large, sparkly and commercialised hanging from the ceiling.  whereas in the bottom image you can see just a banner congratulating the Prince of Wales and Princess Diana on their engagement/wedding. I chose this image because of the difference I decoration, as you would expect there to be more decoration for such an event as the royal wedding yet it is he 2013 Christmas decorations that are more elaborate.






here is a picture of the stain glass window that was displayed in the forum exhibition.

I really like the stain glass window because it connects back to the Whitgift centre origins as it was set up in memory of Archbishop Whitgift.

This image also connected to a story I found in the forum exhibition about the FORUM PUB that was originally part of the Whitgift centre until it was knocked down as part of development. The story talked about the fun and family orientated events in the pub when the Whitgift centre was first built.

here is an image of the visitors book I was able to look at in the exhibition, the book holds all of the names, addresses and comments about the exhibition from all of the visitors to the Forum exhibition.

I found the book really interesting because it showed how the exhibition reached out to all ages, the comments were really interesting because they were all comments of thanks and amazement at the exhibition. However the visitors book could have asked for more information from the public as this could have helped us when doing our project.

things they could have asked:

do you live in Croydon?
how long have you lived in Croydon?
what do you come to Croydon for?
if you were to do the exhibition if there anything you would have added?
what we discussed:

• the development and change of the building
• change in community between 1940-now
• carnivalesque celebration
• dismissal of health and safety- example is a picture of buses driving through the town centre whilst people were crowded to celebrate
• fashion change
• entertainment dissolved over time
• network rollers- music busker groups
• constant event and celebrations
• serious significant events- couple blown off balcony
• people of Croydon are Croydon
• post events impact on present events
• connection between past and present
• Miss Whitgift event
• director of centre was dragged out by bailiffs
• open air- tree in centre square (ROOTS OF CROYDON)
• usage of centre
• constant need to modify
• personal stories- post it notes
• protests/riots 2011

questions to ask:

1. do you think the riots effected Croydon?
2. do you think Croydon has developed positively?
3. what is your fondest memory of Croydon?
4. have you/your ancestors always lived in Croydon?
5. have you always lived here, would you like to live somewhere else and if so why?
6. what do you think are the stereotypes of Croydon now and in the past? how does this effect you? who do you think this effects?
7.  what do you think has changed most in Croydon?
8. what do you think Croydon will be like in the future?
9. do you think the Whitgift centre has changed Croydon?
10. do you think Westfield's will effect/change Croydon? for the better or for the worse?
11. what do you think about the crime that has happened/is happening in Croydon?

putting the movement together (bench and shopping lesson 2)

28th of January
In the lesson today we worked on our shopping and bench movements again, improving them and putting them together as well as adding new movement bringing the whole class together into one movement.
we started the piece as individuals doing movement, then went into our small groups and then into a whole group. Although I think the movement will work well I am constantly thinking about spacing as from our visit at the whitgift centre a couple of weeks ago we do not seem to have much space and thinking about having an audience in the space as well reduces the amount of space so we need to keep this in our minds throughout the creative and performance process, however Emma knows the space and is director/leader of creating a site specific performance piece so she knows about the spacing so we need to listen to her and follow what she creates. I did find the creating of the whole group piece a little frustrating because people were not listening meaning that it took a long time for us to create something that could have been created a lot quicker had people been actively listening and concentrating.

The creating and rehearsing of the bench movement today was a lot easier than last week as we were given more performers into our group which although challenging because it meant we had to add people into a movement piece we had previously created for only four performers, it was actually easier in terms of creating the piece because it meant that we had loads of people giving ideas and talking meaning that we did not get to focus on the poem as much therefore we created a more relaxed and less naturalistic piece of movement compared to the structured "making a cup of tea" type piece we had created last week.

bench movement lesson 1

We started to create our bench movement based on the Croydon poem by Jo Spenser:

Uprooted

Croydon was never the same
after 65
when it was sawn in half.
Wellesley underpass like
a strewn underbelly,
gave the Motor vehicle its commensurate order.
Whitgift middle schools playing fields uprooted south
making way for the,
Whitgift Centre, old before its time,
like Dorian Gray in reverse.
I recall Grants department store closing in 1980.
presiding over an omen, we could not afford a niche,
only for it to become an entertainment venue.
Standardization became our
inalienable right
with the soul of the centre dying
death by a thousand cuts,
not helped by the recent riots.
But Croydon will survive.

in this fist lesson I worked with:
Maria, Amber, and Shannon

we decided to focus on the poem itself a lot which unfortunately meant we did not get very much done in the lesson as we were thinking too much about what movements we could do to each line of the poem rather than what the poem represented.
we therefore were not able to show the class anything that we had created as we kept changing the movement.

shopping movement lesson 1

On the 21st January we spend the lesson working on routines based on the type of things that happen in the whitgift centre here is a link to the routine my group made up  :
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152218637583478

We started off by working in pairs and then I groups and then adding it to the movement.  thought that this process worked really well because it meant we could build up the events in the whitgift centre and we all had original and unique ideas which we could then add together. I really enjoyed watching everyone's pieces and listening to everyone's comments, ideas for improvement and the pieces/area hat they liked.

Liked	How it could be improved
The binding together of the two pairs movements as you couldn’t tell that they had been created separately.	Add more sound to the piece to make it more realistic
Being in such a confined space all squished together gave the busy shopping experience effect	Use more space as it is all kept quite tight and in the centre
The use of having a storyline to make your movement flow so it was like the life of a group of friends going out for the day	Think about heights and levels more
The use of different events in the sequence means that it was interesting to watch	Maybe use different sayings as you move down the line at the end

visit to the whitgift centre

On the 14th of January, we went to the whitgift centre to visit the site we will be working on and with.

We are going to be using the exhibition as our main site/our stimulus as well as the surrounding area.
here is a image I have found through research of the inside of the exhibition room:
 the exhibition as seen through the window includes images of the old and new Croydon, people's opinions and stories of Croydon and plans of the whitgift centre layout.


I found this visit really useful even though we were not able to go into the exhibition itself I actually allowed us to focus on the surroundings and how we could use the area around the exhibition. we were able to look at design and structure, lighting, sound, opinions and feelings we and our fellow Croydon visitors had.


By using the sets of questions it allowed us to focus on all of the aspects we need to know about to make a effective and professional site specific performance.


Myself and Hannah worked together on the questions and both of us found the task really interesting, as we don't normally sit on a bench in Croydon discussing the design, structure and feeling of the centre.

what do you choose to record?

• balcony
• retail shops
• shake away
• pen store
• benches
• people
• skyscrapers
• buildings
• glass ceiling
• patterned floor
• plants
• spotlights
• cameras
• bucket

stand somewhere in the site and write down 20 things about the light

1. artificial
2. natural
3. glass roof
4. shadow from building
5. bright
6. white
7. cold
8. daytime
9. sun
10. reflection
11. dim
12. pure
13. distressing
14. flicker
15. colour
16. shapes
17. spotlight
18. direct
19. mirrored
20. shine

pictures of site:

 stand somewhere else; what is the function of this site? how do people use it?
BENCH:
people to relax
people to wait
people eat lunch
people to think
people to sort out their bags
mothers to feed their babies
people to admire Croydon

stand somewhere else list the architectural details of the site what are the surfaces like? what are the shapes of the site? metal? glass? plastic?

the pillar between the two shops



• rectangular
• plastic
• smooth
• static
• obtuse
• hard
• brick bottom
• not original
• a strip of quite flimsy plastic sheeting placed over original pillar

stand somewhere else and write some words about the sounds you can hear

1. music from shops
2. talking
3. shouting
4. baby cry
5. police/ambulance sirens
6. laughing
7. high heels
8. fast pace walking
9. car seller downstairs
10. doors of toilets banging
11. escalators

 stand somewhere else and some words about how the site makes you feel

1. compacted 
2.  constricted
3. lonely
4. bored because the shops are not very interesting in my site
5. restricted
6. fixed
7. cold
8. unfriendly
9. dark
10. intrigued
11. happy
12. fascinated
13. interested