You need to consider Joan’s age. Will you portray her as a young girl? What effect will this have? How will you achieve this through costume and makeup?

I consider Joan to be around the age of 10, due to her acknowledgement that adults aren’t as faultless as younger children believe: she does not idolise Harper but question her. This curiosity is further enhanced by her more manipulative attitude, which I consider to be highly impactful on the audience; as, the more Joan dissects Harper’s story, the more engrossed they become in the unfolding events. Joan’s costume would consist of an off-white nightgown. The off-white colour is symbolic of Joan’s childhood innocence gradually being ‘infected’, and the use of a nightgown as opposed to pyjamas continues the scripts ambiguity surrounding the era.

Is it significant that she is merely a witness of shocking events and seems to have no understanding of them? Do you think Churchill was making a social comment here?

I would disagree, I consider Joan to be very aware of what’s going on even if she doesn’t understand why it’s happening. However I believe the same social comment is made whatever interpretation you have of Joan’s comprehension. Churchill appears to be demonstrating the dangers of the bystander effect. She is asking her audience if they saw something as atrocious as what Joan saw; whether or not they would step in, call for help, or walk away.

Do you think that Churchill has used the character of Harper to present meanings about our own behaviour? Do you think Harper’s responses to Joan are lies? Could you use costume to portray messages about Harper?

I don’t think Harper herself represents the behaviour of the audience, rather that she encourages the relatable behaviours of Joan. She lies to Joan thereby enabling the inquisitive and analytical nature of Joan’s character. Harper’s costume would consist of black trousers and a plaid shirt. This is as her character seems very practical, and this would allow for that whilst not being specifically attributable to one era and therefore giving her character generalisability to many different audiences.

Perhaps you feel that Harper is merely behaving as a responsible guardian would, trying to comfort a frightened child. Do you think there is any truth in what Joan witnessed? Is Harper ignorant of her husband’s actions or is she hiding something?

I believe what Joan witnessed was true, and that in itself is a sign that Harper is far from a responsible carer. Harper seems like a very aware character and her devising nature plays into the idea that she is not only aware of what her husband is doing but assisting him.

So far we have progressed through 2 full units of Beauty Manifesto and part way through another (the 2 completed of which as seen in the images bellow). The third we decided to draw upon the work we did in our Paper Birds workshop, by utilising the section of physical theatre involving putting pressure on your partner in a movement sequence. This is combined with repetitive speech and follows a segment said in unison. This movement sequence by Zoë and Abi allows time for me to transition between my character as one of the Birthday People, to Jasmine the Ambassador.

In addition we have decided upon a few elements we want to include throughout the performance. 

First we considered lighting and proxemics, deciding that in order to convey the restriction the room placed on the Birthday People, they would remain within spotlights, their movements therefore having constraints. This would also allow us to demonstrate the ever-changing relationships between the characters. Each time we revisit the storyline of the Birthday people the number of spotlights will reduce as groups form and mindsets are changed- the spotlights will reduce and characters will change groups until Alexis is in her own spotlight and all that their characters are in another.

Second we considered character changes and consequent costume changes. We decided that we would use a clothes railing with strips of stretchy, white fabric covering it; this means we can change behind it and step through it as a new character.

Jacques Lecoq (December 15, 1921 – January 19, 1999), born in Paris, was a French actor, mime and acting instructor. He is most famous for his methods on physical theatre, movement, and mime that he taught at the school he founded in Paris, L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq from 1956 until his death in 1999.

Jacques Lecoq came to study theatre and mime through an interest in sports. He began learning gymnastics at the age of seventeen, and predominantly worked on the parallel and horizontal bars. Lecoq described these movements as abstract and a kind of physical poetry that affected him strongly. In 1941, Lecoq attended a physical theatre college where he met Jean Marie Conty, a basketball player of international calibre, who was in charge of physical education in France. Conty's interest in the link between sport and theatre had come out of a friendship with Antonin Artaud and Jean-Louis Barrault, both well-known actors and directors and founders of L'Education par le Jeu Dramatique. Although Lecoq taught general physical education for several years, he soon found himself acting as a member of the Comediens de Grenoble. This company and his work with Commedia dell'arte in Italy (where he lived for eight years) introduced him to mime, masks and ideas surrounding the physicality of performance. During this time he also performed with the actor, playwright, and clown, Dario Fo. He was first introduced to theatre and acting by Jacques Copeau's daughter Marie-Hélène and her husband, Jean Dasté.

In 1956, he returned to Paris to open his school, L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, where he spent most of his time until his death, filling in as international speaker and master class giver for the Union of Theatres of Europe.

Lecoq aimed at training his actors in ways that encouraged them to investigate ways of performance that suited them best. His training was aimed at nurturing the creativity of the performer, as opposed to giving them a codified set of skills. He accomplished this through teaching in the style of "via negativa," never telling the students how to do what was "right." The goal was to encourage the student to keep trying new avenues of creative expression. His training involved an emphasis on masks, starting with the neutral mask. The aim was that the neutral mask can aid an awareness of physical mannerisms as they get greatly emphasized to an audience whilst wearing the mask. Once a state of neutral was achieved, he would move on to work with larval masks and then half masks, gradually working towards the smallest mask in his repertoire: the clown's red nose. Three of the principal skills that he encouraged in his students were le jeu (playfulness), complicité (togetherness) and disponibilité (openness). Selection for the second year was based mainly on the ability to play.

In collaboration with the architect Krikor Belekian he also set up le Laboratories etude du Mouvement (laboratory for the study of movement) in 1977. This was a separate department within the school which looked at architecture, scenography and stage design and its links to movement.

In 1999, filmmakers Jean-Noël Roy and Jean-Gabriel Carasso released Les Deux Voyages de Jacques Lecoq, a film documenting two years of training at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. The documentary includes footage of Lecoq working with students at his Paris theatre school in addition to numerous interviews with some of his most well-known, former pupils.

Features of a traditional Aristotelian tragedy:

Megalopsychia-

A greatness, an incredibly good person.

Hubris-

Excessive pride (a common fatal flaw).

Hamartia-

The action the tragic hero takes, due to their fatal flaw, that leads to their downfall.

Fatal flaw-

An aspect of the tragic hero's character that eventually leads to their downfall.

Peripeteia-

A sudden, dramatic change in fortune.

Agnorisis-

When the character discovers/ realises something important and the plot so far is revealed to them.

Antagonist-

A character (or institution/ group of characters) that oppose a protagonist.

Villain-

An evil character who the protagonist must battle against and who must contribute to the tragic hero's fall.

Machiavellian-

A character who is prepared to behave in an immoral way to achieve what they want.

Malcontent-

A character who is dissatisfied because of some unfair treatment, often as a result of a decision made by the protagonist.