Kyro's Online Journal

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it”. – Atticus Finch (Chapter 3, Page 39)

This quote provides the backbone of Atticus’s philosophy in that nobody should be judged until somebody looks from their perspective, In the book, Arthur (Boo) Radley is at the centre of many controversy and hatred from others due to rumors oF him stabbing his fathers leg seen in the quote at the end of chapter 1 “His father entered the room. As Mr. Radley passed by, Boo drove the scissors into his parent’s leg, pulled them out, wiped them on his pants, and resumed his activities.” This line is uttered by Jem who is 10 years old at this point towards both Dill and Scout who due to their young ages and naive nature buy into the gossip. Boo Radley is also isolated in his house for the majority of the book which further arouses suspicion and rumors. Over the course of To kill a mockingbird, Boo Radley commits good deeds towards Jem and Scout by giving them his most valuable items like 2 piece of chewing gum and little miniature dolls, which starts to make both Jem and Scout Suspect that there might be a completely different side to him. Much later in the book after the infamous Tom Robinson Court case, both Jem and Scout go to the school’s Halloween party, on the way home Bob Ewell who is the father of Mayella Ewell (The Women who was apparently raped by Tom Robinson) takes vengeance on Atticus’s decision to defend Tom Robinson by trying to kill both Scout and Jem, however in the process Boo Radley ends up killing Bob Ewell in the name of protecting the children who he has become attached to over the books story. Once scout realises who saved her and her brother as she was wearing a ham costume that she wore to the Halloween which rendered her to not see the events unfold perfectly. Scout finally accepts that Boo Radley is a good human being as she looks through his perspective to see how he has been misunderstood for so many years, taking Atticus’s advice on looking from over peoples outlook.

“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (Atticus)

“Your father’s the same in the courtroom as he is in the street” (Miss Maudie)

Page 58:

Premonition –  an early warning of future events to come

“As I  climbed up to rejoin his tracks it occurred to me that I had felt a moment of anxiety only minutes before Simon had fallen”

Joe’s anxiety symbolizes the idea that he was nervous about Simon falling to the point where he actually falls as if it was an early sign that he was going to fall down the mountain. (Premonition). He is nervous because if Simon falls then Joe will follow and they may possibly die.

Page 62:

Premonitions 2

“I felt sure that we were close to the end of the difficulties on the ridge”  (Wishful thinking).

• A false sense of security that in the end doesn’t come true. Wishing that Joe and himself are at the end of their troubles when they troubles are just about to become worse.

Page 141:

The Voice

“The voice told me exactly how to go about it, and I obeyed while my other mind jumped abstractly from one idea to another”

• The voice throughout the book acts as a stimulus to keep Joe going on down the mountain, When the voice tells him to do something, he does as an act of belief in himself to get back to Simon in camp, His mind being in a constant array of ideas show how Joe is constantly questioning whether or not he should carry on heading down the mountain or if he should just curl up in a ball and die on the mountain.

I believe with the added material I have created for the costume and set, along with the developments from my fellow group members, I believe that the performance becomes more enjoyable to watch because the costume and set are now adapted more to the piece of drama. The added symbolism also makes the audience think more about the performance which helps the small message of regret that 7 years old looks into with its character looking back at his poor decisions in life, like drinking alcohol and smoking at the age of 11 years old maybe due to peer pressure from him trying to make friends like his mother asks him to try to and also hanging around the wrong crowd of people, in this case quite possibly a gang. The addition of the audience being around the stage is an example where it is to represent how the characters life up to this point can be seen from many perspectives like Lukas being seen as a delinquent or a misunderstood person who has been peer pressured into making poor decision to make friends to please his mother.

Another groups idea that I liked was Josh’s group where the song was read out a few lines at a time and then the rest of the group would act out the lines. I think that this was a good idea because it was like an in-depth analysis on each line and if done for a real performance would help the audience understand the source material even more than just acting out a part or doing a performance that was independent from the song and only carried the characters instead of the main premise of the song. If the performance was developed, I feel like some places where words go into scenes might need more explaining and expanding so that clarity is produced for the audience to understand the song more.

Ideas for development:

Set Design:

Version 1

Set Design (GCSE)

• For my original set design, I wanted to incorporate the original improvised rehearsal set design but add another layer of having the audience look at the performance from both the front and sides of the stage. I decided on this because the whole performance is an insight into Lukas’s life and the anger and sadness he feels about the way his life has already turned out for him and the added fact that his mother lied to him about the nature of his father’s death. So by having the audience looking from many different perspectives it symbolises the many ways to view Lukas’s life up until this point, either viewing him as a delinquent who starting drinking and smoking at 11 years of age or as a misunderstood child who has been through so much that he results to poor life decisions to get him through life.

Version 2

Set Design (GCSE) Version 2

• Another developmental change I added was the reduction of blocks used on the stage where Lukas would both sit and write from, I felt that due to his upset and anger in this scene which are both very low emotions to have, I decided that Lukas’s character should be sitting on the floor in the middle of the stage which would symbolise who low in life he has gone and he feels that he has gone with him becoming a drinker and smoker at age 11, It is to represent his mindset, The other block for Lukas’s brother has stayed in the same place showing the difference in mindset and character between the two brothers with Lukas’s brother being a much happier and less regretful person than Lukas. Lukas is at the centre because it’s his mindset and story that we are interested in the most as an audience, at least much more than his brother’s story which is why he is in the background for the most part.

Costume design:

For costume design, I went with a white t – shirt with black jeans for Lukas and the same but with a black skirt and tights for Lukas’s Mother which are accompanied with Black trainers. On the white T-Shirts are words that describe the person’s emotions and mindset during the piece so that the audience can get more of n idea of the character history and the emotions going through their heads while they are speaking and interacting with each other. The black clothing beneath just serve to draw more attention to the actual performance and words on the T-shirts so that the audience don’t become distracted from the fancy pieces of clothing as the words matter more than what the character is ultimately going to wear. Lukas’s brother only has a plain white shirt without words because he is only in the performance to give a comparison between himself and Lukas and doesn’t serve the story too much so, therefore, he wears a plain white t-shirt to stop attention from going to him when he doesn’t need it.

Lukas Graham:

• Regret – Some regret for the action he took in life like starting to drink and smoke at 11 years old.
• Depression – How his life has turned out and the fact that his mother flat-out lied about how his father died.
• Anger – Towards hi mother for lying to him about the nature of his father’s death
• Grief – Towards his father dying and his poor life choices while his father was alive.

Lukas’s Brother:

• No words to not attract a lot of attention as Lukas’s brother acts as more of a comparison between him and Lukas then as an importance to the story.

Lukas’s Mother:

• Grief – Towards lying to Lukas and the death of her husband (Lukas’s father)
• Worry – About Lukas’s future and whether or not he will be alive in the upcoming days.
• Sadness – Lukas staying up in his room writing songs and not talking to anyone or eating much food.
• Regret – For lying to Lukas about how his father passed way.

The lesson before we found out what our performance stimulus was we had a lesson on ways to create and develop a performance in the some of the bellow techniques that were contributed by myself and others in class

• Magic “If” – Contributed by myself
• Given circumstances
• Script Writing
• Characterisation
• Hot Seating Technique (Interview to the character)
• Prop addition
• Set Design
• Improvise around plot
• Costume design (How the characters look and what they wear)
• Free association
• Symbolisation

After we each gave an idea on how to develop and create a performance, we put our ideas to use so that we could strengthen our knowledge so that we could boost our future ideas for the development of drama. I listened to a character idea created by Arthur with a stimulus of a bottle of water, The idea was a character who has a deep obsession with water and hordes water but doesn’t drink it and just instead just has the water on display. I then thought about the thing in life that I have an obsession with which is musical theatre and then I looked at the way in which I implement my obsession like collecting programmes and souvenirs and keeping them for the memories. I decided that my character should depend on water for not only to live on but to be entertained by to. I then watched other peoples ideas and gave my thought on the magic “if”.

The next lesson we were given the stimulus which was 7 Years Old by Lukas Graham. We listened to the song twice and then everybody gave their idea on what the message of the song was and I said that the song was about the change of life between the optimistic 7-year-old and the pessimistic 60-year-old. Some other ideas on the song were that life is hard when they isn’t a father figure in life and life is short and you shouldn’t have regret near the end of life like the 60-year-old looing back at his poor decisions in life.

After our conversation on the message of the song, we got into our groups which was me, Dillon and Harry. There are many ways in which we could have made a performance around 7 Years old like having the words of the song acted out as they were sung or we could have made a conversation between: 7 year old, 30 year old and 60 year old Lukas Graham, in the end, we decided that our performance was going to be mainly a conversation between me as the mother figure and harry as Lukas Graham about how the mother lied to him about his father dying by going to sleep. Harry was writing a song as Lukas graham looking back where hatred was shown due to him being lied to about his father’s death. we added Dillon as a younger brother and the idea of the conversation only being brought up by Lukas taking his time to come down for dinner and this both annoying and concerning the mother about her son’s mindset. When it came to the rehearsed Improvisation the script wasn’t planned at all and only the planned part was the shape of the performance. After we did the rehearsed performance I decided on two departments to improve the piece, Set design and costume design which will be presented on Monday 9th of May.

Background

• 7 years old by Lukas Graham looks at a man in his mid 20’s looking back at life and regretting the decision he has made like starting to drink alcohol and smoke at 11 years old it also looks at him wondering how life will turn out in the future for him and if he will continue to regret his life so far for years to come.