PORTFOLIO COMPONENT 1 – HELP FOR WRITING OPENING
PARAGRAPH
How ideas have been researched, created and developed in response to the
chosen stimulus.
My chosen stimulus for this devised piece was the song ‘Broken Doll’ (by Paloma Faith).
What were your initial ideas?
Our initial idea was to link the themes in the Broken doll to Amy Winehouse’s struggles
regarding addiction and manipulation.
Which moment have you focused in on? ZOOM (Lyric, part of a picture, theme, feeling)
I was struck by the harrowing lyric ‘I know I am damaged goods, but I wanna be led out
of darkness.’
Analyze: What did this show/communicate?
This highlighted the writer’s desperate mental affliction and isolation she feels from the
world like Amy Winehouse’s struggles which was my initial idea for a protagonist figure.
How did you improve and develop your ideas? Where did your ideas lead you?
However, after extensive research, we instead decided to incorporate The Yellow
Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman, a semi-autobiographical short story; about a
woman with post-partum depression who is confined by her husband, leading her to
obsess over the wallpaper in her room and ultimately tear it down in a bid for freedom
from control and confinement.
Focus on a specific part of the stimulus and explain
What was your final decision for an idea for themes/message/storyline?
Why did you choose this?
How does it link to your initial idea?
However, after extensive research, we instead decided to incorporate the story from a
book called ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman, a semi-autobiographical
short story; about a woman with post-partum depression who is confined by her
husband, leading her to obsess over the wallpaper in her room and ultimately tear it
down in a bid for freedom from control and confinement. She like Paloma and Amy are
tortured by similar demons, feeling like a child or a ‘broken doll’.
Links to the idea of The Woman feeling lost
and in need of help due to her
(undiagnosed) post-partum depression,
leading her to rely on her husband, John,
to mend her mental instability- since he is
a doctor.
The lyrics ‘Broken Doll’, metaphorically uses Dolls to represent women who are
expected to be perfect and conform to societal standards, with the puppeteer being a
reference to Husbands who manipulate women to make them ‘fit in’, similar to how
women in 1890s were diagnosed ‘hysterical’ and prescribed nothing but ‘rest cure’- just
like the Protagonist in The Yellow wallpaper.
This leant itself to our target audience was our peers in Y10 and 11 and we further
adapted the message to ‘don’t let other people's actions and decisions determine who
you are’ which is relevant to teenagers especially in a school environment. Choosing to
convey such a relatable and relevant message, we concluded the style of Splendid
Theatre and Brechtian techniques were most suited to educate the audience on our
message and create an informative piece since they believe theatre should ‘engage and
provoke a young audience’ whilst also ‘giving a voice to characters who have been
neglected or stereotyped’. To help us devise our performance, we summarized the
Yellow Wallpaper’s key moments into ‘episodes’ which then became scenes, so our piece
could adopt an episodic structure helping us maintain our non-
naturalistic approach.
With this came the scene ‘Diagnosis’, where we included
overlapping dialogue, allowing different characters to convey their
opinions on how to cure ‘The Woman’. However, since we had
researched life for women with post-partum depression in 1890s,
we understood that they were not able to speak freely, and any
form of depression was just diagnosed as being ‘hysterical’. This is
where we had the idea to create a character that was the ‘Internal
Thoughts’ of which we were inspired by the woman, who was
essentially her voice since she was unable to share her own
opinions. This character became a comedic yet vital role in our
piece as it provided an insight into the womans mind, similar to
Splendid’s 2015 production of Wozycek, where the main character
is on top of a ladder and his thoughts surround him.
How have ideas from the chosen practitioner/ genre been
incorporate into the piece to communicate meaning?
Since we chose to use the style of Splendid Theatre to convey our message, we made it
a point to incorporate various Brechtian techniques to maintain alignment with the
theme of our selected practitioner. Therefore, we chose to focus on the technique of the
V-Effekt, to alienate the audience.
We also used multi-rolling to create ridiculous moments of comedy to ensure that the
audience-maintained focus on our key message, rather than building relationships
towards characters. Therefore, in the opening scene I am the interviewer, but for the
majority of the
piece I am Internal thoughts. Throughout the performance my character the Interviewer
acts charismatically by making light-hearted jokes but also providing the audience with a
view of how John controlled the Woman, to the point where she was unable to find her
true self as she descended further into madness.
Another way we incorporated the V-Effekt was through cross-casting ‘The Woman’ - who
was played by Joe, which continued to distance the audience from the protagonist and
added comedic value to the piece. We then understood that since we play various
characters, other than using tone and other forms of characterization, we had no
immediate way to distinguish certain characters, so we chose to utilize placards, as they
too maintain the minimalistic costume and set design but also add even more comedy
conveyed through my character Internal Thoughts. Especially in the scene when The
WiW says ‘Just do what your hearts telling you to do’ to which I excitably flip my placard
and reveal a picture of a heart- and start chanting RIP IT RIP IT.
When developing the penultimate scene, where The Woman frees herself from her
husband John, we wanted the audience to focus on this dramatic ending when the
woman ultimately kills John. But with risks of it becoming realistic, we decided to include
puppetry to ensure the scene remained comedic and alienating as the final scene was
going to act as the ‘slap’ of the Tickle and Slap technique whereas the rest of the piece
embodied the humorous ‘tickle’. EG
How ideas have been developed, amended and refined
during the development of the devised piece.
When examining the overview of the piece, we became aware that
there was room for the characters' individual personalities to be
developed. We drew inspiration from the Interview technique used
in Modern Family but with an Interviewer portraying a Caesar
Flickerman (The Hunger Games) type personality to ensure comedic
value was maintained. We also decided that the Interviewer should be from the present
day, to allow the audience to establish how the attitudes towards women in 1890s
juxtaposed those of the Modern [Link] example when I first interview the Woman,she
hatefully describes the idea of having children, to which I attempt to finish her sentence
ostentatiously with ’You love the idea of children and watching them grow!’ which clearly
juxtaposes the Womans opinions, therefore establishing a cultural divide between the
two characters. By adding short interviews in between the most vital scenes, it allowed
the audience to gain valuable background knowledge on the main characters whilst they
spoke their opinions which also allows the piece to adopt an episodical structure, as each
interview focuses on a new key moment/ episode.
<< Extract from the script of this key
moment
Another method we used to develop our piece was asking our peers
to watch it and communicate areas which were unclear or could be
improved. The feedback we gained suggested that The Woman in
the Wallpaper and Internal Thoughts were too similar.
Therefore, we added contrast by using The Woman in the Wallpaper to symbolize the
woman’s timidity by making her anxious and skittish. Whereas I took inspiration from the
movie Drop Dead Fred to develop my character of Internal Thoughts as sarcastic and
immature, through exaggerating my tone and facial expressions. This clear juxtaposition
between the 2 fragments of The Woman’s imagination represents the mental conflict the
woman experiences as she eventually makes her own decisions. Therefore, we
developed the scene when the Woman decides that her life may be better without John.
In rehearsal, we decided that we needed to emphasize the point when the woman
concludes she needs to leave John to acquire freedom since this is a vital moment in the
piece. Therefore, we added this segment which also presents the contrast between IT
and WIW.
This allowed me to truly show IT’s immature nature, particularly when I decide that we
should use roleplay to visualise The Woman leaving John- since this is a childlike and
silly technique- which aligns closely with Splendid’s style. Then when I exclaim ‘Let me
go get my costume!’ I had a large grin and spoke quickly to convey excitement, and
skipping off highlights my immaturity as playing dress up and skipping are often
associated with young children.
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