We were given a stimulus of 'War' and after a lot of changes and arguments we came up with a very emotional, strong drama piece. We decided to do the war with cancer. The piece was about a mother with two children fighting for her life with cancer. Her husband and the children's father had 'left them' a few years before and towards the end it was revealed that he died due to a mental illness making him commit suicide. This resulted in a death with me losing my fight to cancer. It was a hard hitting piece reducing most of the audience to tears.
In our piece we tied in many different dramatic techniques we had learnt over the years of doing drama in lessons. We all had a monologue each to put across our feelings to the audience. Mine was the first monologue and it was after being told I had terminal cancer. I started the rehearsal process of my monologue by researching poems written by cancer patients. I thought this might give me an idea of the feeling people with terminal cancer go through as I will never really understand what actually goes through your mind when being told. After doing this I wrote down a small piece of the main things I wanted to get in. This gave me guide lines and from there I improvised saying what came naturally. After doing this I had a fixed monologue in my head and I gave it my everything on the night.
After researching the poems I found a poem written by a little girl in America with terminal cancer. This gave us the idea for the end scene. The poem fitted our piece perfectly and gave us a chance to do some physical theatre in our piece. I said the poem at the end with the other doing a choreographed piece with me. We used the music Halloween Theme Tune to go with it giving it a creepy kind of edge. We did it as if I was a music box and life was still carrying on around me as I was beginning to slow down. It represented the cancer winding up inside me and when it was finished winding I stopped and fell. When I stopped and flopped over this symbolised the death of me. We did this because we didn't want me death to be obvious and dramatic. We thought outside the box and did something less obvious to make the audience think. This was very effective and finished the performance off with something different.
THE POEM WE USED..
SLOW DANCE
Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.
Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask How are you?
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done!
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.
Ever told your child,
We'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say,"Hi"
You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.
Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.
Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask How are you?
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done!
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.
Ever told your child,
We'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say,"Hi"
You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.
When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....
Thrown away.
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....
Thrown away.
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.
In GCSE Drama it's all about using your strengths and showing them off. Becca played my daughter in the piece and we are both strong singers.We decided to play on this and use a song in our piece. We used the song 'Breakeven' by Coldplay. The lyrics reflected our piece really well and it added a lot of emotion to the piece. The lyrics we used were..
I'm still alive but I'm barely breathing
Just praying to a God that I don't believe in
'Cause I got time while she got freedom
'Cause when a heart breaks no it don't break even
Her best days will be some of my worst
She finally met a man that's gonna put her first
While I'm wide awake she's no trouble sleeping
'Cause when a heart breaks no it don't breakeven... even... no
What am I supposed to do when the best part of me was always you,
And what am I supposed to say when I'm all choked up and you're ok
I'm falling to pieces, yeah,
I'm falling to pieces
They say bad things happen for a reason
But no wise words gonna stop the bleeding
'Cause she's moved on while I'm still grieving
And when a heart breaks no it don't breakeven even... no
What am I gonna to do when the best part of me was always you,
And what am I supposed to say when I'm all choked up and you're ok
I'm falling to pieces, yeah,
I'm falling to pieces, yeah,
I'm falling to pieces
One still in love while the other one's leaving
I'm falling to pieces
('Cause when a heart breaks no it don't breakeven)
