Thursday 24 September 2015

Week Two

Monday 21st September
In today's lesson we decided that all the characters are being questioned after the party about what has happened to Alice and they are all asked questions by a voice over (possibly by the person playing Alice) and they all have different versions of how the night went. We sat down and planned a sequence of events that the piece would follow, after we all agreed that it would set in an interview room in a Police Station.  At the start, it would be party scene, which is meant to represent Alice falling down the Rabbit Hole. This would be done through physical distortion using distorted music so it looks creepy to the audience. This would then go straight to the interview rooms where everyone bar Alice would be interviewed. They would be asked questions by a voice over. This would feature flashbacks that included Alice. We aren't entirely sure how it will end so far, so we will go along as planned and see how the piece could end.
One idea for an ending was that Alice had fallen down a hole and died. We also thought that the Queen of Hearts character could hate Alice and so the audience would think it was her who had caused Alice to die and then right at the end it would be revealed to be someone that the audience wouldn't have suspected. Before we could start trying out our ideas, we decided on who would play which part.


Characters and the actors playing them:
 Alice- Rebekah Richardson (me)
Queen of Hearts- Katie Ovenden
Mad Hatter- Morgan Ratcliffe
White Rabbit- Jack Ryder
Cheshire Cat- Emily Lunn

We then started to improvise different ways in which we could show Alice falling down the Rabbit Hole. We thought it would be a good idea to have Alice stood in the middle and the other characters surrounding her and pulling her all over the place, in a creepy non-realistic sort of way to show the distortion that is Wonderland. Hopefully our audience will understand that Alice is meant to be falling down the hole.



An illustrational from the book by Lewis Carroll

Week One

Monday 14th September
Having all come up with some ideas from the previous week, we sat together as a group and discussed some of the ideas on what direction our stimulus could be developed. We all had come up with different ideas, such as a drug related Wonderland, or a modern day Wonderland. Unable to agree on one topic we came up with where our piece could be set. Some ideas included being in a supermarket, in a school, in a car park or even being buried alive. One idea was in a prison cell, which we all really liked. We then went on to think why our characters would be in jail. Some ideas we came up with were: assault, breaking property, shoplifting, violent disorder, disrupting the peace etc. One idea was that something had happened to Alice and the other characters were in jail and all had very different version of events as to what happened to Alice. Although we wanted to make a modern adaptation, we want to make clear links back to our stimulus. This links to the research we did on the orginal story by Lewis Carroll as we thought that during the police interviews they would all be isolated from the others much like in Alice in Wonderland as Alice is isolated from the real world which makes her discover Wonderland.





Our ideas on what could have happened to Alice and why people end up in jail.


 We then started to try out ways being could be interviewed and give different versions of events. We then tried out ways in which people could behave at a party when they are intoxicated. To further our research we watched a video of how people can behave at party's to see how the characters could act. We also thought it would be a good idea to keep the personality of the book in our piece very similar. For example, the Cheshire Cat would always be smiling, the Queen of Hearts would be mean, the White Rabbit would always be checking the time and the Mad Hatter would be slightly eccentric.



Wednesday 16th September
In order to fully understand the play, we spent this lesson researching it. I found out about the plot of the original story, the key themes that appear in it and also the inspiration behind it. This can be found in the blog post 'Alice in Wonderland' along with where we found the research.



Alice sitting in a tree before she follows the White Rabbit to Wonderland

Our ideas for Alice in Wonderland

My idea for our piece was a contrast to the original. Alice lives in Wonderland and has never lived in the real life, she has only heard about it through her friends in Wonderland. She begins to wish she had a life outside of Wonderland. After a fight with the Mad Hatter (her best friend) she is transported to London, were she finds herself in an orphanage and is adopted by a woman by a women who appears to be kind at first but soon begins to turn nasty. Alice soon realises that the real world isn't all she expected it to be and wishes she was back with her family in Wonderland. Everyone misses Alice back in Wonderland and everyone but the Mad Hatter travel to London to convince Alice to come back home. When they finally find Alice, she is devastated that her best friend hasn't come and refuses to go with them, even though she is clearly unhappy. They spot this and convince the Mad Hatter to return with them back to London. The two best friends reunite and they all travel back to Wonderland as Alice realises all she wants from life is in Wonderland

Target Audience: Young Children

I chose to have young children as he audience because it is quite light hearted and will be colourful and something they would enjoy.

Characters
Alice
Mad Hatter
White Rabbit
Cheshire cat
March Hare
Dormouse
Caterpillar
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum
Adoptive Mum (Queen of Hearts inspiration)

The costumes would be bright and would be the same as what they wear in the book and films, so Alice would be in her typical blue dress. This would attract the young children as they would recognise the characters.

We discarded this idea as it would be too long and we wouldn't be able to get it done in the fifteen minutes we have. Also we don't have the budget to have all the costumes that would suit the idea.

Another idea which was from Morgan was that Alice is a lonely girl and is being bullied or abused and Wonderland is her escape in her imagination. It is quite a dark idea so obviously the target audience would be people aged 15 and above because it wouldn't be appropriate for younger children. At the end of the short piece, Alice leaves Wonderland as she doesn't want her imagination to become her life. We decided not to use this idea because we wanted to do a more light hearted piece and avoid drugs because drugs was the core idea in our previous piece. For more details see the picture below:


Ideas for Alice's Imaginary Wonderland


Our other ideas can be found on the blog post 'Week One'.




Alice discovering Wonderland





Saturday 19 September 2015

Alice in Wonderland

Our stimulus for our devised piece is Alice in Wonderland.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pen name Lewis Carroll in 1865. Both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the sequel, (also written by Lewis Carroll) Through The Looking Glass is known for its literary nonsense as the stories are set in a unrealistic world. However being unrealistic is the whole essence of the story as it makes it an intriguing book to read and takes us away from real life and into a whole new world.

tinted monochrome 3/4-length photo portrait of seated Dodgson holding a book
Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll, born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson ( 27 January 1832- 14 January 1898) was an English writer and mathematician. He has wrote numerous novels but Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is the most popular an loved by people of all ages. Carroll was not your typical writer as he suffered from partial deafness and a stammer but that didn't stop him writing one of the most popular children's books of all time. His understanding of logic and children allowed him to create his mystical world named Wonderland. He also developed a passion for photography and was a well known gentleman photographer.  He died on the 14th January 1898 at his sisters home in Guildford of Pneumonia following Influenza. He is buried in Guildford at the Mount Cemetery. There is a memorial towards him in the Poets corner at Westminster Abbey. 

Inspiration behind Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice Liddell as a beggar child - photograph taken by Lewis Carroll, 1858.
Alice Liddell
It is believed that a young girl named Alice Liddell was the true inspiration behind the story. Lewis Carroll became extremely close to the Liddell family, particularly the three daughters Lorina, Edith and Alice. One afternoon while taking the three sisters on a rowing trip, Alice and Wonderland was born. He told the girls a story about a young girl named Alice in Wonderland. He presented Alice Liddell with a handwritten illustrated manuscript in November 1864 named Alice's Adventures Under Ground.


Main Characters in the book

Alice- A seven year old girl who's fantasy world is her 'Wonderland'. She is a curious young child who's curiosity leads her to the rabbit hole.
White Rabbit- He initially leads Alice to Wonderland and he is a frantic rabbit always running about.
Cheshire Cat- He disappears and reappears at his own accord, he is called the Cheshire Cat because he is always grinning. He explains the madness and wonder of Wonderland to Alice.
The Caterpillar- A wonderland creature that directs Alice to the mushroom that allows her to shrink and grow.
Mad Hatter- Hosts the tea party which Alice stumbles across. He is impolite and takes great delight in frustrating Alice.
March Hare- A companion of the Mad Hatter. He also takes delight in frustrating Alice.
Dormouse- A mouse at the tea party who drifts in and out of sleep.
The Queen of Hearts- The leader of Wonderland. She is a woman who constantly screams at her subjects and orders them to be beheaded. She dislikes Alice.
The King of Hearts- He co-rules Wonderland but isn't as ruthless as the queen and undoes her orders of execution.
Duchess- A friend of the Queen , who tries to befriend Alice. But whom Alice dislikes.

The Story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice is sat day dreaming by her sisters side when she sees a white rabbit and decides to follow him. Alice follows him down the rabbit and when she reaches the bottom she finds herself in a hallway full of doors. After seeing a beautiful garden through a key hole, she dries after realising she can't fit through the door. She sees a bottle lying on the table with the label 'Drink Me' which she does. Alice shrinks down in size and begins to cry again as she left the key to the door on the table and is now unable to reach it. Alice eats a cake with the label 'Eat Me' which causes her to grow extremely tall. Still unable to reach the garden, she cries again and her tears form a pool around her. She shrinks down and the pool of tears become a sea. She meets a mouse who takes her to shore where Alice sees numerous animals stood on the embankment. They take part in a 'Caucus Race' and Alice finds herself alone after scaring them away with tales of her cat Dinah.

The White Rabbit stumbles across Alice who mistakes her for a servant and orders to fetch some things from his house. Her curiosity gets the better of her once again and she drinks a unmarked bottle of water and grows to the size of the house. When the White Rabbit returns he is furious and is swatted away by a giant Alice. To get her to leave the house the animals throw rocks at it, which turns into cakes in the house. Alice eats one of these cakes and returns to her normal height.  She meets a caterpillar who sits on a mushroom and smokes a hookah after walking into the woods.  The two argue and as the caterpillar is leaving he tells that different parts of the mushroom do different things. She tastes part of the mushroom which makes her grow above the trees.

She eats another part of the mushroom and shrinks down to her normal height. She continues to walk into the woods and stumbles across the house of the Duchess. The Duchess is looking after a baby and also the Cheshire Cat is present. The Duchess is rude to Alice and departs for a croquet game with the Queen of Hearts and hands Alice the baby. The baby is a pig and Alice lets the pig run into the forest.  She meets the Cheshire Cat who tells her that everyone in Wonderland including herself is mad. The Cheshire cat points her towards the March Hare and then disappears into nothing but a floating grin.

She goes to the March Hare and find him, the Mad Hatter and the Door mouse having a tea party. She learns that they are stuck in a perpetual tea-time. After saying her goodbye's, she finds a tree with a door in it and enters finding herself in the great hall once again. She takes the key form the table and using the magic mushrooms she enters into the garden. There she finds the Queen and plays a game of croquet with her. This is no ordinary croquet as the ground is hilly and the mallet is a live flamingo and the ball a live hedgehog.  She sees the Cheshire Cat who asks her how she is getting on. The King of Hearts interrupts the conversation and orders the execution of the Cheshire Cat.

The Duchess attempts to befriend Alice but the Duchess makes Alice feel nervous. The Queen chases the Duchess away and tells Alice to visit the Mock Turtle to hear his story. She listens to the Mock Turtle's story and then they hear an announcement that a trial is about to begin and Alice returns to the croquet ground.

The Knave of Hearts stands trial for stealing the Queens tarts with the King of Hearts leading the proceedings. The Mad Hatters take to the stand as a witness but his testimony makes no sense. The questioning is going nowhere and Alice is called as a witness.  The White Rabbit acting a herald produces a letter which the King believes proves the Knave's guilt. It turns out to be a poem and Alice believes it is nonsense. This displeases both the King and Queen and the Queen orders Alice's execution. Alice grows to an abnormal height once again and knocks over all of the Queen's army of playing cards.

All of sudden, Alice finds herself awake and lying on her sisters lap on the bank once again. She tells her sister about her dream and then goes inside off tea while her sister thinks about Alice's adventures. 

Themes in Alice in Wonderland

Loss of Childhood- In the book Alice cries when she realises she is too big to fit through the door and also once again when she loses control of her body. This suggests that Alice doesn't want to grow up and wants to stay a child so she can return to her Wonderland.

Death- Alice's adventures in Wonderlands are all dangerous and she comes across many dangerous paths. When the Queen orders her execution, Alice begins to realise that Wonderland may not be as ridiculous as it seems. She realises death is a real threat but is nothing to be scared of and that the risks she faced in Wonderland was not absurd after all.

Reactions to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

At the time of the publication it wasn't that popular as people believed it was full of too much nonsense to be taken seriously. More credit was given to the illustrations than the actual story itself. However Queen Victoria enjoyed the book and ordered that the next book wrote by Carroll was to be dedicated to her. Despite the negative response, Carroll wrote a sequel to the book which by the time is was published Alice's Adventures in Wonderland had become more popular. As time went on, the book become more and more popular with people of both gender and ages. It is unlikely that in 2015, you will find someone who doesn't know the story of Alice in Wonderland.

Adaptations of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

One adaptation of the book was the 1951 Walt Disney animated film called Alice in Wonderland. Much of plot is the same but minor details have been changed to fit with the time. One of the biggest differences is that towards the end of the film it is Alice on trial not the Knave of Hearts. It also features Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee who didn't feature in the original book but in the sequel. Alice was voiced in this adaptation by Kathryn Beaumont who also voiced Wendy Darling in Peter Pan.

The most popular recent adaptation is the 2010 film, Alice in Wonderland. It stars Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as the Queen of Hearts and Mia Wasikowska as Alice. This only loosely based on the novel and features characters such as Tweedle Dee and Dum, the Jabberwocky and the White Queen. Also in this Alice is not a seven year old child but a nineteen-year old. A sequel to this Alice Through The Looking Glass which is due for release next year.

Through The Looking Glass

The sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was released in 1871. In this Alice returns to Wonderland is set six months after the first book ended. Most of the characters reappear in the second book, some under names Alice doesn't recognise as much.

How did we use this research

We used this research to come up with ideas that would allow us to perform a modern adaptation but also create links back to the original so we are still making clear links back to the book by Carroll.

Websites used for research

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/alice/

http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/apr/17/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-alice-in-wonderland-lewis-carroll

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/surrey/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8548000/8548055.stm

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/20/lewis-carroll-alice-in-wonderland-adventures-150-years

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Carroll#Alice_books


 



Alice at the Mad Hatter's and March Hare's tea party


Thursday 17 September 2015

Welcome to my blog!

I will use this blog to record our progress in our devised unit 11. We chose to use the stimulus Alice In Wonderland. I will record the research we have done to find out about Alice in Wonderland and also our other ideas we had before we came up with Alice in Wonderland why we discarded them. I will also record the progress we make in rehearsals.