Development Phase

James Edmondson Drama coursework: Paper 1: Unit 2: Drama Exploration 2 Development Phase I am writing up the development phase for the work we did on blood brothers and will explain the drama mediums and elements we used to make the play our own Characterisation Mickey Johnstone’s character was a young lad who spoke in a common liverpudlian accent he swore at a young age this that he was brought up in a lower class background. To play the part of Mickey Johnstone I had to change my accent to liverpudlian .I also had to change my costume to a scruffy school uniform .then to show that Mickey was growing up he changed to typical 1980’s early 90’s work clothing . In contrast Eddie Lyons was wearing a immaculate school uniform which changed into a suit and duffel coat with a university scarf to show him growing up Mickey was different to Eddie Lyons in the ways that they spoke in different accents and wore different. Costume Mickey Johnstone was wearing school uniform most of the way through until the working scene where he changed into a green army shirt a pair of jeans and a lumberjack jacket. Mickey’s mum was wearing blue baggy jogging bottoms, and a cream cardigan and a jumper. Sammy was wearing a leather jacket and jeans. Sammy was dressed like this because it was the fashion during the time the play was set this showed that Sammy was a tough teenager with an attitude. In contrast to that Mickey’s brother Eddie played by Jake was wearing Black trousers, white shirt , a University scarf and a duffel coat. Eddies mum was wearing a long dress and a pair of high heels. His dad was wearing a suit. Eddies costume showed that he was a teenager that wanted to do well and was rather rich. Contrast In our half of the play we used flats to create the set on either side of the stage one side posh the other side poor. On the posh side they had big doors, stone walls and plants outside them. In contrast the Johnstone side of the set (the poor side ) had graffiti on the walls of the houses and the bricks were all dirty. This was to show the audience the contrast in society between the rich and the poor. Use of voice Eddie’s family spoke in a posh accent and pronounced every letter .in contrast to that Mickey and his family spoke in scouse accents and didn’t pronounce every letter. For example during the jail scene when Mickey gets depressed I quietened my voice and showed no emotion in my voice .By doing this It showed that Mickey didn’t care about any thing in his life and had lost the will to live. It was a contrast to how I had played him previously when he was happy and had no care in the world. James Edmondson Drama coursework: Paper 1: Unit 2: Drama Exploration 2 Use of Set and Space For our set we decided to have four flats either sides of the stage to show the differences in the families. On the left hand side was the Johnstone family and we showed this by having graffiti on the walls of the houses and red bricks. In contrast the right hand side was the Lyons family who had a big posh door large grey stones and plants either side of the steps. To help the audience understand the difference in this set we decided to have the families’ scenes in front of the corresponding set, showing consideration of space. We also used the space and levels to create a tense atmosphere when the children were chanting at Mrs Lyons causing her break down by having the children invade her personal space to show the world closing in on her. Use of music We used several types of music and sound affects such as a school bell to tell the audience that the scenes were set in school, classical music for the Lyons’ family scenes to show there upper class status .In the scenes that show the children growing up we decided to use different songs from different years to show the passing of time for example East 17 “House of Love” for the lively fair ground scene and Take That “A Million Love Songs” for slow and romantic Nightclub scene. These songs were released in the early 90’s with the second one released a couple of years after the first showing the pass of the time and the characters growing up. At the end of the play when the twins are lying dead we created a freeze frame, which was held for over a minute with the song “ My Declaration” by Tom Baxter playing. This song was chosen for its powerful and relevant lyrics, which talk about making the most of your life. Example of the lyrics – “Gonna be someone, gonna give something…gonna be a braver soul than this, I’m gonna jump at all those many chances that I’ve missed…” Use of lighting We used a various amount of lighting to create different atmospheres for example during the madwoman scene in which Mrs Lyons has a nervous breakdown red lighting was used to create a feel of danger and urgency within the audience. Red lighting was also used in the death scene to show the audience that something bad had happened. Use of movement We used Physical theatre in sections of the play for example during the dole scene when Mr Lyons makes everyone redundant we showed the effects of this by creating a machine that gradually broke down to a standstill. This showed the break down of Mickey’s life .We also created the fair ground scene through our use of movement and physical theatre by having people move and use their facial expressions as if they were on fairground rides such as a roller coaster and waltzers to set the scene.