Lesson 5

Today was some what our pre-dress rehearsal. We started piecing all of our pieces together and took our first steps towards blocking it in the library itself.

We started off by creating the opening to our show; we would all dress up and walk around the audience, greeting them as our favourite book characters. The first book character I thought of was the same as someone else's- Peter Pan, so we teamed up, with me becoming the Wendy to their Peter Pan. Although I do love Peter Pan, Wendy is a character that I also hold very dear to my heart. We had to come up with a short speech that would explain to the audience who they were, when I first read the story and by who and why I loved them. My piece was:

"My favourite character is Wendy Darling, She is the best storyteller ever to be, with her talents being recognised by Peter Pan himself. She was chosen to adventure to Neverland, but even with her childlike dreams, she always came home to her family. I was first read this story when I was 5, sitting on my mothers knee in our rocking chair. She would rock and forth, making me feel like I was flying over London or sailing on the high seas. The story stayed with me and perhaps part of me still believes that Peter Pan will come to my window to rescue me. Peter Pan and Wendy taught me that childhood dreams are beautiful and all I need is faith, trust and pixie dust."

I think this is an effective opening to our play as it immediately immerses the audience in the stories they know and love, hopefully sparking a connection with books they read as a child or throughout their life. If they can carry this spark through the performance, they will hopefully form a bond and connection with piece, delving into its deeper message.

Next we started piecing together the different sections of 'Spine.' We hold books around Edgar when he talks creating a shied of books and we sit behind Mani holding the books directly in the air, almost in a literary salute. Creating such strong images to coincide with these speeches make their words and message more powerful, intertwining the different uses of books also identified in the 'books can...' piece.

We then worked on Ernesto's piece on Nazi book burning. We decided to line up behind him, holding our torches which creates both a bonfire setting and a beautiful image of starlight, which looks eerie when compared to the topic of Ernesto's speech. When he talks about the student march and what they used to shout we all say:

"Against decadence and moral decay!
For breeding and convention in the family state!
I turn writings by Heinrich Mann, Eric Glaeser and Erich Kastner over to the fire!" 

All of us shouting these statements at the same time will hopefully hit the audience harder with the message we are trying to convey. It will transport them to the bonfires, evoking the senses linked to the lighting and our speech for them to do so. This makes the section more poignant.

Blocking in the library gave us a good grounding and insight into how the performance was to run. I got to set up my grandma speech in one of the booths and found how I could make use of the space. My favourite discovery we had in the library was the idea of performing 'Spine' through the bookcases. I think it is interesting for the audience to watch and differentiates from the normal occurrences of a monologue. I think it emphasises that we want the books to speak louder than we ever could, something I believe to be a key theme in our piece.

The final thing we did in today's lesson was to block Malala's bus scene. We have set it up like a bus with all the girls sat on it. When the sound of gun fire is heard, we all in slow motion fall forward. Malala stands above the crowd and jerks as if she has been shot. All the girls on the bus move around her so we can in turn lift her above our heads, creating an angelic, emoting shot. As I have said, I believe immersing the audience is important if we want to portray our message on the power of books. Acting out such a brutal scene in such a delicate fashion, I believe, projects this power that Malala has constantly fought for.