Before I start on that, let me first tell you the story of how our group negotiated our Ensemble piece, The story goes something like this:
CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY!!!
(https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0ARC5rVSbLPmZZGh3Y3NmOV8wZ204N3FmaGo)
Our process of making our ensemble piece went rather smoothly. However, at the start of it all we were rather cautious and not very comfortable with each other as some of us were collaborating for the first time. For me and Owen, this was not the first time we were working together. At our first meeting, whilst brainstorming for ideas, I noticed that we were all trying to get a sense of what each other was like. We were trying to hear views from everyone and trying our best to see the different work styles of each other. This was obvious as there were many times where we were saying "What do you guys think?" We were trying to gain acceptance with each other in the group while the more strong-headed members tried getting their voices across.
As we continued devising, we grew more and more comfortable. We would take in everyone's view and reject any view we saw as not right, collectively. We had a thought process together. We all decided to take charge of one aspect of our script and we went back and devised it accordingly. Our initial aim was to have a script that was fragmanted and non-linear with no fixed storyline but a clear message. We, thus, wrote our respective pieces. I was in charge of the MRT scene. We then came together and read through the script and made changes accordingly. My script was a bit too long and was shortened down when we decided to do a way with a bit I had initially proposed with regards to a gameshow happening on stage.Everyone brought out their opinions and views with regards to the piece. I found myself questioning other people's scripts while I saw my script being questioned as well. We handled this queries and proceeded from there.
We then allocated roles in accordance to our abilities. I was chosen and agreed to be the Indian Foreign worker as I felt that I could relate better to it and write the script as close as possible to it.There were confusions with roles such as the Newscasters so we all had our turn in trying to be one. We then found some of our members to be very good Newscasters and they stuck to the role. Thus, we were tapping on our strengths.
When we got down to devising, the MRT scene went about easily but the Maid scene was one of problem. I found myself constantly consulting my peers with my role as it went from me talking in English similar to that of the actors from the movie "Titanic" to talking in an Indian accent. I got feedback from my peers for this and this helped me out in deciding which to choose.
A major occurrence in our piece happened when Prue came to watch our piece. We realized that in our bid to come across as fragmented and non-linear in our presentation, we had a rather messy piece. The fact that both the MRT and maid scene did not link became an issue. We were rather concerned and devised through it. For this, we did not re-write the script. Instead, me and Faeza went through the scene trying out new lines and scenarios while taking feedback from our peers. We managed to devise a piece extremely fast. We began to understand why Prue told us "not to worry about it" and that "it would come". It was indeed through devising that we explored our characters more and coupled with some further research we managed to get the scene going further.It was clear however, that we initially did not pay attention to the audience perspective and also to Characterization. After we did them both, we managed to get a clear direction and understanding of our role and our piece, we felt became clearer.
For me, however, I felt that the piece could have more improvements and time constraints did prove a hindrance to our process. Also, it was hard to get everyone together to rehearse due to struggles finding rehearsal places.We had to make compromises like staying in school to late to further our devising as well just like other groups. It was, thus, vital that we all could get along well for us to work well together.
I also noticed that there were some strong-headed members in the group who did not respond well to us not accepting their views. Thus, as a unit, we tend to open all our decisions to everyone else to come to compromises effectively.
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