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Homelessness

This drama activity focuses on devising a performance piece about homelessness using non-naturalistic techniques. It includes group exercises, discussions, and reflections on the topic. Students also watch a video and brainstorm reasons for leaving home.

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Homelessness

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  1. Homelessness Devising from stimuli

  2. What do you see? What could we develop from the stimuli in front of you? • The pile of rubbish in front of you – what catches your eye? • Does it belong here? • What does it make you think about? • Do you have an emotional reaction to it?

  3. Stage this in small groups:

  4. Peer assessment of scenes How realistic were the characters? How committed to the roles were the performers? What did they do well vocally/physically/with the use of space? In what ways have they used the extra people within their group (if applicable)? How effective have their own ideas been in adding to what was already outlined by the writer?

  5. Imagine you have £1 – who out of these would you give it to?

  6. Watch this: • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CwCvpEMEJU How many minutes do you think a child would have to wait before getting any food or money if they were standing on a street in the freezing cold with a sign saying they are homeless and in need? Why do you think people don’t always go to help?

  7. Non naturalistic devised Drama In groups, create an essence machine under the heading ‘Homeless’. Reflect and discuss the movements, the use of spoken language. Then, continuing the exploration of the topic using non-naturalism, in groups get into a symmetrical shape and produce a piece using 5-8 words connected to the topic ‘homelessness’. In the symmetrical formation, all do the same movements and say the same word. Consider cannon, repetition and unison in the structure. • What do you feel you have learnt from doing this work? • Why might non-naturalism be effective in exploration and performing a piece connected to the topic? What might be the drawbacks of using non-naturalism in performance work connected to this topic?

  8. Discussion Brainstorm – all the reasons a person would leave home. Extension – put a + or a – by each idea to show whether it is a positive or negative reason.

  9. From the video • Something that you learnt • Something that surprised you • Why did the people in the video leave home? • What were the dangers and problems they faced when having to leave home?

  10. A country road. A tree.Evening. Estragon, sitting on a low mound, is trying to take off his boot. He pulls at it with both hands, panting. He gives up, exhausted, rests, tries again. As before. Enter Vladimir. ESTRAGON: (giving up again). Nothing to be done. VLADIMIR: (advancing with short, stiff strides, legs wide apart). I'm beginning to come round to that opinion. All my life I've tried to put it from me, saying Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven't yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle. (He broods, musing on the struggle. Turning to Estragon.) So there you are again. ESTRAGON: Am I? VLADIMIR: I'm glad to see you back. I thought you were gone forever. ESTRAGON: Me too. VLADIMIR: Together again at last! We'll have to celebrate this. But how? (He reflects.) Get up till I embrace you. ESTRAGON:(irritably). Not now, not now. VLADIMIR: (hurt, coldly). May one inquire where His Highness spent the night? ESTRAGON: In a ditch. VLADIMIR: (admiringly). A ditch! Where? ESTRAGON: (without gesture). Over there. VLADIMIR: And they didn't beat you? ESTRAGON: Beat me? Certainly they beat me. VLADIMIR: The same lot as usual? ESTRAGON: The same? I don't know. VLADIMIR: When I think of it . . . all these years . . . but for me . . . where would you be . . . (Decisively.) You'd be nothing more than a little heap of bones at the present minute, no doubt about it. ESTRAGON: And what of it? VLADIMIR: (gloomily). It's too much for one man. (Pause. Cheerfully.) On the other hand what's the good of losing heart now, that's what I say. We should have thought of it a million years ago, in the nineties. ESTRAGON: Ah stop blathering and help me off with this bloody thing.

  11. Homeless by Pete Marshall Water soaks through shredded news That’s wrapped around a hungry heart And as I walk in heelless shoes I wonder forth around the park. The nights are cold and days are long My mind replay’s where I went wrong And rain will soak and wash my tears Where strength resolves to show no fear. And last nights meal was found in bins Of salad tossed in throw out things And smokes are found upon the floor The stubbed out tabs I barter for. The children stare as mums walk past A school runs joy a nervous laugh That sees no soul as thoughts are cast Their eyes look down and cross the path. My callused hands and grubby nails Grip plastic bags that hold my life And heelless shoes pace endless trails That tread beyond this bitter plight.

  12. Exploration For the part in red have it as a mime, then it moves to a flashback scene to show ‘what went wrong’ (text in blue indicates where it moves to flashback) After the flashback, move to present again • How can you show it is flashing back in time? • How can you show past then moving back to present and make it clear for an audience?

  13. Evaluating your own work • What difficulties did you face in developing the work? • How did you overcome any difficulties? • What did you learn about devising from this and from the scheme so far? • What are the successful elements of the work you created? • How effectively did you use the stimuli? • What would be the next steps if developing this work further? • Do you feel as an individual you contributed significantly to the success of the work? Justify this with examples of how you helped generate/improve the performance outcome.

  14. Devising in the style of verbatim theatre Verbatim theatre is a form of documentary theatre that employs recorded testimonies from real people interviewed. It is theatre that claims a degree of authority and ‘truth’. The 1963 devised play Oh! What a Lovely War was formed using some verbatim methods, knitting together actual soldier diary entries and researched material found by the cast. The Laramie Project (2000) by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theatre Project about the reaction to the 1998 murder of gay student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming, is another highly regarded example. The play draws on hundreds of interviews conducted by the theatre company with inhabitants of the town, company members' own journal entries, and published news reports. Using verbatim testimonies is highly popular today as a way of developing material for theatrical performance. Playwright Mark Wheeller mixes verbatim with his own ideas to put his original work together.

  15. Final assessment - devising • In groups, create 10 minutes of performance material connected to the topic ‘homelessness’ • You can use material and ideas already explored in the scheme- but you don’t have to • You must add in your own stimuli and ideas to anything you do use from previous lessons • You must include evidence of the verbatim style of theatre making within your work • You must use some or all of the following theatrical conventions: • slow motion • freeze-frame • audience aside • split focus • flashback/ flash-forward • narration • spoken thought • You must consider your actor-audience relationship and you could choose not to perform the piece in the conventional performance space within the centre • You must show evidence of characterisation somewhere within the work • This is a piece of TIE and therefore there needs to be a consideration of message and what you hope the audience might gain from watching the work

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