The text I have been studying were the song lyrics from: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by The Beetles. It was picked because the lyrics were nonsensical. It is about being taken to a fantasy world where you see wondrous things such as "rocking horse people with marshmallow pies" and "plasticine porters with looking glass ties". Throughout this journey you are urged to follow Lucy into even more magical settings and eventually you disappear with Lucy aswell.
When I first heard the lyrics read to me my first images were bright colours, of pink, blue, yellow and green swirling around and forming a child's painting. I saw a young girl who was beautiful and mysterious that beckoned me to follow her through a strange land. I was also struck with many words and phrases which are shown on the spider diagram on the next page. My colleagues had very similar ideas to the examples shown, with everyone including the reference to a "dream".
When we were first asked to create an improvisation using Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds we found it extremely challenging. This was because the lyrics were so obscure and interesting it took us a while to discuss what the poem actually meant to all of us. I at first thought it was about a child being lured into a storybook and actually became part of the story itself. My colleagues had other ideas such as a child's dream or game.
After discussing what it was about we found it very interesting and challenging to convey the sense of wonder this magical land to the audience without use of sets or props. When we were asked to use Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds as an inspiration we found it extremely interesting because we could invent strange, mysterious characters which would not only interest us but the audience.Our initial plot involved two settings which would play a vital role for the plot of the improvisation. The first setting was a child's bedroom surrounded by toys which accidentally revealed that they were alive when having an argument about who was the child's favourite toy. The next setting was in the toy box where the ballerina who represented the good fairy battled the bad fairy that was no longer the favourite toy anymore and was left in the toy box. Diagrams of the imaginary settings we created are on another page.
A story board is also included.When setting out to create our improvisation we included two Explorative Strategies. They were: Still image and Role Play.We planned to use the Explorative Strategy still image in our improvisation to emphasise an important moment in the improvisation. This also allows the audience to be able to see the Drama Medium of Space and Levels used in the improvisation.
We used the Explorative Strategy Role Play to pretend to be someone else, for example a ballerina, by putting themselves in a similar position and making themselves wonder what the character would think or say in that position. We used this so we could come up with dialogue and also help with Characterisation which is an Element of Drama.These Explorative Strategies helped convey our ideas in the improvisation. Role Play helped us understand the text and will help us convey our ideas because it helps us imagine we are the characters which helps us to understand why the character in the text is asking to be followed and why the toys in the improvisation are jealous of each other. The Explorative Strategy freeze frame helps us to understand and convey our ideas by allowing a pause in which we can all clearly see the relationships of the characters while there is a still image.
The characters are all very shallow and self centred when it comes to winning the affection of their owner, the innocent little child. If I were to stage the piece it would be in a very magical atmosphere where everything is happy. This would create a contrast to what the characters are feeling and also display that it is a child's room where you would expect everything is happy. The theme of our improvisation is a child's perception of things being different to the truth.
