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Devising piece

Hi, I'm currently studying A2 drama and have 3 people in my set - 2 females and 1 male - and we have no idea what to do for our devising piece. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for things we could use for our creative adaptation?

Reply 1

michaelt_15

What's the stimulus ?

Reply 2

Eeshie154

What do you mean by stimulus?

Reply 3

michaelt_15

Hi sorry for not explaining I just thought all schools had to have a stimulus. A stimulus is just something which the piece has to be based around e.g war, missing people of chile or like ours knife crime on teachers (I don't know what to do!). If you don't have a stimulus then you are totally open! Wish I was the same. Before finding out the stimulus I wanted to base mine around the apple by Jimmy Brunelle but obviously not know with a knife crime stimulus. It is mainly a comedy play. So I would definitely have a look online at the script and watch some YouTube videos of people performing it, it would be a really good starting point for you to change the script around to make it devised and your own. There's a lot of different characters , some crazy, some normal so there's something for all your group. They could also be played by the 3 members of your group by just switching characters and choosing specific scenes. Hope this helps ? I have a lot of other ideas too but just not on mine! :frown:

Reply 4

Eeshie154

No, we don't actually have a stimulus, I was just hoping that someone could give me some ideas on sources to use like a novel or a song that we can turn into a piece of drama?

Reply 5

michaelt_15

Yeah I get you, but hopefully you find something to help you. It depends what route you want to go down you could create a cool Alice in wonderland style piece and there's great music online as well (Alice's theme from movie, teaparty by kerli). Or what I'm using in mine is no education by pink floyd which would allow your group to go in different directions and maybe a piece similar to Teechers by John Godber (not sure if you have heard of it). Sorry I couldn't have been of more help but hopefully some others get back to you. Please keep me updated of how it is going!

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 6

Eeshie154

I still need a stimulus!

Reply 7

Eeshie154

We were thinking about using the fairytale 'The Princess and the Pea' but some members of our group aren't that keen on it, and our other stimuli is The Eagles' song 'Hotel California' which we are really not keen on due to the mature content that is not applicable to us.

Reply 8

michaelt_15

Hey, sorry for long reply. Sounds like your struggling. Just found out our stimulus has been changed to mystery of John Darwin (missing person who faked going missing for 5 years) so I'm struggling for ideas too.

I get what your saying about hotel California. As for the princess and the pea I feel like it's a good idea but it would have to be executed correctly and if members aren't keen on it then probs not a good idea. If I was you and I had a free reign then I would probably go for either a horror/ comedy theme but I'm not you and I'm not sure you or the group would want to do that. I would run with comedy if I was you- easier to run with- don't have to be as creative.
Themes:
Hair salon- allows for you three to have a large role- make as customer- females as busybody hairdressers. Gossiping constantly.
Supermarket- http://youtu.be/FHtnJhatXtw These all achieved high A's.
School: music- no education by pink flloyd.

It's really difficult for me to say every idea though as some might seem poor however it's when you develop and work on the pieces they come to life and they will show the creativity of your ideas. Sorry I can't be of much more help to you. Hope you sort it with the group and as I said before let me knows how your getting on.

Reply 9

Eeshie154

Thanks so much for all the help. After all that fuss we decided to scrap Hotel California altogether and are instead doing a piece of children's theatre around 'The Princess and the Pea'

Reply 10

michaelt_15

It's alright, hope I helped? Did the performance go good? It sounds like a really interesting idea you came up with for the princess and the pea inspired theatre! Our group decided to do a piece focused on a murderer in a forest called shock headed Peter, so we went dark! I got 18/20 on that and 20/20 on my monologue. It's good speaking to you, keep me updated on your other drama work in the new year? Also which is your exam board for the course, thanks- Michael :smile: