Devising Journal #6

During this session we began with a full run of the scenes we have devised over the last week. My group was in charge of movement, and I wrote the script which was later reorganized into three monologues by different women which funnel into a joint presentational scene.

What stood out for me was the ways in which we defined different spheres of interaction between the male ensemble and the female ensemble. It was clear to us that we needed to clean up this act on many levels, from the way each actor interacts within the confines of the four imaginary walls, and how each world works once the world breaks down. For example, my character - The Nurse - explicitly interacted with the two ogling men behind me, whereas The Housewife and The Sex Worker were barely cognizant of the world behind them. Dr. Shan pointed out the inconsistency between those scenes and that was a note which I filed away not just for the final performance, but for future reference as well.

We then had a technical preview with Mr. Rashid, who ran through all of the available lights in the NUS Theatrette so that we could begin visualizing our performance. While we have yet to begin writing our script, we were aware that the lighting and sound design will be a vital part of the presentation and I immediately began taking notes on the different lighting colors as well as the position of each spotlight, so that we could plan the blocking and set design from the beginning. We also brought several pieces of clothing to test the effects of lighting on different materials and colors.

I realized that gradually, following the end of the team presentations, our roles have shifted from researchers to deviser-performers, and I understand that in the coming weeks, we will gradually transition into a unified theatre ensemble. Preliminarily, I have established that I am interested in writing, but acting and performing is something that I definitely want to do too.

During the last segment of class, the group in charge of writing the text went up to the house and we began to summarily look through the poems, writings and moments that we already had. An idea was beginning to form in my head as I considered the earlier discussions - someone had proposed that we consider the Bai Suzhen and Xiao Qing pairing. At first, I was not entirely keen on deviating so much from the source text, but when I thought about it, the two of them have known each other for a thousand years. Could a break between the pair be the catalyst for a lesbian romance story?

Just as we began piecing the story together, I heard a series of excited shrieking coming from the stage. The people on stage who were folding clothes were snatching them out of each others' hands and running around stage in an epic game of chase. Confused but nevertheless amused, I captured the moment and uploaded it onto our Instagram account @c0ntemp0rarywhitesnakes.

Next week being recess week, I will likely be setting aside some time for writing the script and testing scenarios on my long-suffering classmates.