We're a believer

We continued to make Jack and the beanstalk starting from where we left off which was where the giant had just left. Jack asks the children which way he should go as the goose played by Carl backs on and the two end up bumping into each other.

Goose: Whatchoo doing? Watch wear your going! Who are you antway little giant

Jack: I’m Jack and I’m not a giant I’m a real boy

Goose: Alright Pinocchio! What’s the difference?

Jack: Well I’m smaller and not as mean, (pause) what are you, a duck?

Goose: Excuse me, does it look like I am a duck? Duck are small and stupid (Jack starts backing away); I am not a duck, thank you very much. I’m a goose!

Jack: What’s the difference?

Goose: Excuse me. (add line) Where are you going?

Jack: Home … I hope.

Goose: Home? You mean somewhere not here? Somewhere else? Somewhere beyond these four walls?

Jack: Erm Yes?

Goose: (gasp) Tiny giant, take me with you, please!

Jack: (yelling) I am not a giant!

(Goose covers Jacks mouth)

Goose: Lower your tiny voice! Or the giant will hear us. (Pause to look around the room) Please take me with you, I can’t take it no more, that big dude is mean, rude, ugly; unlike yourself might I add. Pleeease!

Jack: Well … I’m afraid I-

Goose: I can give you gold, lots of it.

(Jack turns to the audience)

Jack: This could solve all my family’s problems. (Looking at the goose) Fine but stay close.

(Jack goes to exit stage left)

Goose: Other way little giant.

(Jack turns around and exits stage right)

Goose: My saviour.

(Goose exits stage right)

Giant: Fe fi fo fum THE ENGLISHMAN HAS TAKEN MY GOOSE!

Narrator: Bellowed the Giant. Jack and The Goose looked at each other with fear as they knew that if they were caught the giant would gobble them up whole for lunch. Their only chance to escape will be to run to the beanstalk and go home.  So that’s what they did.

 

We then decided to add the Benny Hill theme as Jack and the Goose run back to the beanstalk. The two of them run around the hall once as toby walks on on stage, as the two of them reach the stage there is a break in the song in which the two of them do an over exaggerated breath. they then contiue to run but smack into Toby who then joins them as they run around the hall again, they then repeat the other exaggerated breath as the three of them then run into Dan M who also joins them for one last lap of the hall as when they reach the stage last time, Toby and Dan run off as finally Carl and Tom jump down the beanstalk.

 

Jack: Mum I'm home and..

Mum: Where have you been? I have been worried sick!

Jack: I climbed up the beanstalk mum..

Mum: WHAT ?!  What happened?

Jack: Well…(storytelling) I went up the beanstalk and found this land on top of the clouds which had a huge castle in the distance, then I met these people called Munchkins. They welcomed me to the Sky by singing and dancing. Then I snuck off to the castle which they told me not to go to, but I did anyway. I then, snuck under the door which was HUUUUUGE and everything was massive! It belonged to a giant who tried to eat me, so I ran all the way home.

MUM: Well you have been busy … but Jack giants don’t exist.

Jack: But I have proof… (indicating the goose)

Mum: What a duck ?

Goose: EXCUSE ME?

Mum: Oh a talking Duck?

GOOSE: OH MY GOD? Is everyone here so silly.

Jack: Mum this is a goose who can lay golden eggs. Look I have one here ?

Mum : Fantastic where did you get the goose from?

Jack: The Giants castle

Mum: So you stole the Giants goose?

Narrator: Then suddenly a huge voice bellowed from above.

Giant: Fe fi fo fum that Englishman will be my lunch.

Narrator: Jack his mum and the goose all looked at each other in terror confused about what to do. Then Jack realised he only had one choice.

Jack : We are going to have to cut down the stalk.

Goose and Mum: WHAT?!

Jack: it’s the only way. Kids I need your help repeat after me. Cut cut cut the stalk etc.

Narrator: The beanstalk then fell from the sky and crashed to the floor. Jack had saved everyone with the Giant stuck in the sky.

Jack: We did it thank you kids!

Mother: Jack, you were so brave! I am so proud of you, I’m sorry I ever doubted you

Jack: That’s okay mum, I’m just happy we’re safe now, and we’ll never have to starve again!

Mother: now we have so much gold from the castle and the goose, we can have a party!

Jack: YESS

 

We then decided on our finally to be "I’m a believer" from Shrek as its is a fimilar tune to children so they would b able to sing along and dance with the song. We changed some of the words as well as shortening the song

Tom:

I thought love was
Only true in fairy tales
Meant for someone else
But not for me

Tom and Meg:

Love was out to get to me
That's the way it seems
Disappointment haunted
All my dreams

Everyone:

And then we saw your face
Now We're a believer
Not a trace
Of doubt in our mind
We're in love
 We're a believer
we couldn't leave you
If we tried

Freya:

I thought love was
More or less a given thing
But the more I gave the less
I got, oh yeah

Dan M and Freya:

What's the use in trying
All you get is pain
When I wanted sunshine
I got rain

Everyone:

And then we saw your face

Now we're a believer

Not a trace

Of doubt in our mind

We're in love

We're a believer

We couldn't leave your

If we tried

What's the use in trying

All you get is pain

When we wanted sunshine

we got rain

And then we saw your face

Now we're a believer

Not a trace

Of doubt in our mind

We're in love

We're a believer

We couldn't leave your

If we tried

 

 

Todays lesson went very well as have successfully managed finish staging all of Jack and the beanstalk but we all now need to spend our time going over all of Jack to make sure what we have learned will stick with us so that we don't have to spend time on re-learning any scenes from Jack. We also need to go over Little red and Goldilock before next lesson as we are close to our performance date as we are planning to perform at both St. Margret's Infants and Thames view Infants.

Welcome to the sky

Today we continued working on Jack and the beanstalk from where we left off which was jack on his way home to show his mum the beans. In this scene there is just Jack (Tom) and the Mum (Ashley), this starts with mum cleaning the house in a very camp fashion as jack enters. mum asks "have you sold the cow yet?", jack says yes, so mum rushes over but is shocked to find beans in Jacks hand instead of money. Jack's mum then takes the beans and throws then out the window. The next scene is where Jack discovers the beanstalk and decides to climb it with help from the children by teaching them a chant ("Climb the stalk"). Jack reaches the top of the beanstalk and meets a stranger who relies that Jack is a new person so he calls all of us on stage to sing a song. this song was inspired by "Shrek's Duloc" song:

"Welcome to the sky, such a perfect place,

Stay right where you are, we will tie your lace,

Have no fear, its time for fun, come and play with everyone,

This is a perfect place.

Just keep off of the grass, shine your shoes, wipe your…. Face.

The sky is…. The sky is……. The sky is a perfect place."

 

After the song we all then tell jack that he should never go in the castle, then we all march off merrily to the tune of the song we just sung. Narration then takes over the scene as Jack runs into the castle and the narrator describes all the things he sees like giant pieces of rubbish and furnisher. Jack hides which then starts the scene I was given to create at the start of our project.

(The ground shakes with loud bangs to the ground)

Narrator: Then the ground started to shake with a loud bang was moving closer to Jack, in fear Jack hide as he heard a mighty and powerful voice.

Giant: Fe Fi Fo Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman!

Narrator: Jack shaked with fear as he hide from the Giant

Giant: Fe Fi Fo Fum, I want to taste this Englishman in my tum!

(Jack looks up from behind his cover to gaze at the Giant)

Jack: The Giants going to eat me, I need to get out of here.

Giant: Fe Fi Fo Fum, I think the Englishman wants to run!

Narrator: Jack looked for a way to get out but there was nowhere to go, nowhere to run.

Giant: Fe Fi Fo Fum, I can’t see any Englishman!

Narrator: the Giant walked away. So Jack went to run away but the hears a noise of goose above him.

This was as far as we managed to get with our performance today. we have managed to stage a lot of Jack and the beanstalk so if we can continue with the commitment we are showing towards this production we should finish jack in the next couple of lessons. For my part of Jack's mother I am looking into how to stylize her for the show by looking at similar characters like "Edna Turnblad" from "Hairspray". If I am able to capture the characteristics of this character I believe it will better my performance as Jacks mother.

I've Got the Magic Bean

Today we started our work on Jack and the beanstalk and created our opening scene:

Narrator: Once upon a time there was a boy named Jack who lived with his mother. They didn't have much; in fact all they owned was a milky white cow. Although one day Jack's mum had some bad news.

Mum: Our cow hasnt given us any milk for over a month now. Jack and I are starving, without milk we have no money for food.

(Jack enters from stage left)

Jack: I don't want to give up my cow, I love her. She's my friend and you can't sell a friend

(Jack then starts to sing you've got a friend in me)

Mum: Don't be silly Jack, a cow can't be your friend we don't have any choice.

Jack: But...

Mum: No buts...

Jack: (sighs)... I guess so

This was our opening scene for Jack and the beanstalk, after this we started to work on a market place scen which is when Jack meets the Bean man. We created the market place by making us all muchants trying to sell their iteams. We each create our own murchant who would walk around the stage shouting for attention and then going up to the audience to try and sell there goods until Jack walks on. all of us then charge at Jack so we could sell him our murchandise. Jack backs away into the Bean man who then sends us all away and then buys the cow for the magic beans. We then go into a song "I've got the magic" or as we have called it "I've got the magice beans" which we choreographed a dance for:

"I got the magic in me"= On the three beats of this line in groups we loung forward pushing our arms out
"Every time I touch that track, it turns into gold"= We step cross to left making a rainbow with our hands and then step turn to the left followed a in three groups rasing our hand on 3 seperate beats
"Everybody knows I've got the magic in me"= We do a step, click, bounce. followed by a step out then pivot to the back then to the front.
"When I hit the flow, the girls come snappin' at me"= We then slowly rais our arms then drop into the 'sprinckler' move ment starting right and then one on the left
"Now everybody knows I've got the magic"= We slowly movw into a circle

"Magic, magic, magic
Magic, magic, magic
Magic, magic, magic"= During this chorus we circle around Jack and the cow raising and lowering our arms
I got the magic in me"= We pose on the last beat of this line

Transitions

Intro to Little Red

(Freya and Toby are both life less and boring teachers)

Freya: Hello boys and girls my name is Miss Beck and this is...

Toby: Mr. Saddleton
Freya: ...and today we're going teach you about...
Freya and Toby: Health eating!
Freya: Did you know you have to eat 7 fruits and vegetables... a day
Toby: Yum, Yum
Freya: and did you know you must drink 2 liters of water... a day
Toby: Gargle, Gargle
Freya: now we're going to teach you how to peal an orange

(Meg and Tom run on full of joy and excitement, Tom is carrying a book)

Meg: Boys and Girls. Boys and Girls. We found it! We found the book!
Freya: Excuse me, we're trying to do an assemble here.
Tom: Yeah but you're boring them.
Meg: Are you bored boys and girls

(The children shout yes)

Tom: Do you want to sit here and listen to health eating or do you want to have fun
Meg: If you want to have put your hands in the air and wave them like you just don't care.

Tom: I don't care!

Meg: Boys and girls we are going to need your help in turning these two boring people into fun people like us.
Tom: I'm going to teach you the magic words. "Magica, Magica, Magica me", now your turn.

(The children say the words)

Meg: You can be louder than that!

(They say the words again)

Tom: Now we're going to do it for real, are you ready, Magica, Magica, Magica me.

(Freya and Toby  suddenly become full of energy)

Freya: That is the biggest book I've have ever seen
Toby: That is so cool
Meg: Can you help me open it?

(They all pull the book open)

Now what story should I read... How about Sleeping beauty?

(Freya then pretends to prick the sowing needed and fall asleep) 

Maybe not, what about Rapunzel?

(Toby then goes down on his knee)



Toby: Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair.
Meg: ...No! Little Mermaid?

(Tom jumps to the floor flopping about like a fish)

But we don't have any water, How about...

(Overlapping and loud)

Freya: Oh do that one, I love that one.
Toby: That story is the best
Tom: Please do that one!
Meg: SHHHHH! (To Freya)
Freya: SHHHHHHHHH! (To Toby)
Toby: SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! (To Tom)
Tom: SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! (To Audience)
Meg: Okay boys and girls let begin, Once apon a time..
 

Intro between Little Red too Goldilocks

(Meg closes the book and looks up at Toby, Tom and Freya)

Meg: Now wasn’t that a good story boys and girls? Didn’t we all have loads of fun listening to this story?

Tom: it was the best story I have ever heard in my whole life!

Toby: that story was so amazing, little Red Riding Hood is my favourite story and you told it so well!

Freya: (not full of much energy) it was nice.

Meg: Nice? Did you not enjoy this fairy tale? You said it was your favourite when I started to read it to you.

Freya: yeah I know but then I remembered that I liked another fairy tale EVEN MORE then Little Red Riding Hood!

(Overlapping)

Toby: NO WAY, nothings better than Little Red Riding Hood.

Tom: No story that I know could be better than Little Red Riding Hood, It’s the best story EVER!

Freya: Yeah there is, I told my mum the story a couple of nights ago and it’s SO much better!

(Overlapping and improvise a childish fight)

Tom: Stop lying nothing is better!

Toby: Little Red is Funny, Amazing, Fun, Great…

Freya: My mummy said that my story is the best she had ever heard!

Meg: (To Toby) Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Toby: (To Freya) Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Freya: (To Tom) Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Tom: (To Audience) Shhhhhhhhhhhh!

Meg: Would you like to share your story with all of us then

Freya: Oh can I, Thank you sooooo much!.... (She goes to speak then realises) I don’t remember it.

Meg: Have a look through the big book of Fairy tales and see if you can find it

Freya: Found it!

(Overlapping)

Toby: Oh my god! That is a great story.

Tom: Oh please read us the story.

Meg: Go ahead.

Freya: Thank you so very much.  Once apon a time

  

Intro between Goldilocks too Jack and the Beanstalk

 

Freya: Seeeeeee, wasn’t that the best story you have ever heard.

Meg: Yes that was lovely and I think it’s a good story to end on, we can do more stories tomorrow…

(At the same time)

Toby: (huff of air)

Tom: (huff of air)

Meg: Are you two alright?

Toby: Yeah I guess

Tom: It’s just that, you got to tell a story… She got to tell a story…

Freya: Do you guys want to tell a story to me.

Toby: Oh yes please

Tom: Can we, Can we

Meg: I’m not sure, maybe...

Tom: Please it’s in the Big Book of Fairy Tales, I saw it earlier.

Meg: Well…

(Overlapping and improvised

Toby: Oh please let us

Freya: Can they, can they

Tom: We won’t take long

Meg: (To Toby) Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Toby: (To Freya) Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Freya: (To Tom) Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Tom: (To Audience) Shhhhhhhhhhhh!

Meg: You both can’t tell the story.

Toby: Yes we can, its Jack and the Beanstalk so I will narrate the story with my (Narration voice for Jack and Beanstalk) Narrators voice.

Tom: And I can be Jack

Freya: That sound like loads of fun, please let them tell their story

Meg: Very well you can tell your story

Toby: Thank you, this is going to be loads of fun

Tom: It’s okay Miss you’re in the story as well, you can be the Cow I trade away.

Meg: What!

(Overlapping, Toby’s voice is more powerful then Megs)

Toby: Once apon a time in a place far away

Meg: (Getting over shadowed by Toby’s voice) No wait I don’t want to be a cow

Jack and the Beanstalk plan

Today we started to look at creating our last story, Jack and the beanstalk and the casting of each character needed in the stroy. We did group votes on who we wanted to play each part, this is the casting for Jack and the beanstalk:

Jack: Tom

Giant: Dom

Mother: Ashley

Goose: Carl

Beanman: Dan M

Cow: Meg

Narrator: Toby

We were each then given a scene or 2 scenes from to devise from Jack and beanstalk over the half term. i was given the scene when jack discovers the bean stalk and the giants entrance to the story.

Discovers the Beanstalk

(Jack wakes up and moves from his bed and walks towards his door)

Narrator: Jack woke up the next morning and decided he go for a stroll but when Jack opened his door he was shocked for what he sore.

Jack: what is that thing, is that a beanstalk?

(Jack looked at the beanstalk in amazement)

Jack: it goes high up into the sky, I can’t see the top. Should I climb up to the top and have a look at what I see.

Narrator: So up Jack went, going higher and higher until Jack looked down and couldn’t see the grown but Jack still climbed up to pass through the clouds then discovered something amazing above.

Giants Entrance

(The ground shakes with loud bangs to the ground)

Narrator: Then the ground started to shake with a loud bang was moving closer to Jack, in fear Jack hide as he heard a mighty and powerful voice.

Giant: Fe Fi Fo Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman!

Narrator: Jack shaked with fear as he hide from the Giant

Giant: Fe Fi Fo Fum, I want to taste this Englishman in my tum!

(Jack looks up from behind his cover to gaze at the Giant)

Jack: The Giants going to eat me, I need to get out of here.

Giant: Fe Fi Fo Fum, I think the Englishman wants to run!

Narrator: Jack looked for a way to get out but there was nowhere to go, nowhere to run.

Giant: Fe Fi Fo Fum, I can’t see any Englishman!

Narrator: the Giant walked away. So Jack went to run away but the hears a noise of goose above him

Reasearch: Theatre

Theatre 1: The polka Theatre

Polka Theatre is a children’s theatre in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton, for children aged 0– 13. The theatre contains two performance spaces - a 300 seat main auditorium and a 70 seat studio dedicated to early years performances. Polka Theatre is a producing theatre which also tours shows nationally and internationally. The theatre houses part of the teddy bear collection of the former Teddy Bear Museum in Stratford-on-Avon. The building also features a creative learning studio, a garden, an outdoor playground, indoor play area, exhibition spaces and a cafe. Polka Theatre is a registered charity number 256979 and an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation. It is also funded by the London Borough of Merton and a number of private charitable trusts and foundations, individuals and commercial companies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4GBp9m2uwk
This is trailer for a piece by Polka theatre called "Three colours" which appears to captivate the skills of puppetry, movement, silhouette and music. the piece shows successful uses of these for skills but mainly in the movement as all there movements are big and animated like ours will need to be for our production if we will want to get a bigger reaction from the children. They also use projection very effectively as they have this part where a girl eats a strawberry projection and it loses a chunk. This is what we hope will be able to achieve with the beanstalk when we create the beanstalk projection for jack to climb. Overall Polka Theatre appear to be successful in children's theater in the term of movements as they are able to perform big and animated movements that would draw the eye of the children as well as being able to use bright colours in a creative way for the children.

 

Theatre 2: Unicorn Theatre

The Unicorn Theatre is the UK's leading theatre for audiences aged 2–12. The theatre has its home in a custom-built building on Tooley Street, in the London Borough of Southwark, which opened in 2005. The theatre was designed by Keith Williams, built by Arup and comprises two theatre spaces (the Weston and Core Theatres), an education studio, rehearsal space, café and the John Lyon meeting room. The theatre was founded in 1947, by Caryl Jenner; in 1961, Jenner began presenting children's productions at the Arts Theatre in the West End, and in 1967 the company took over the lease of the theatre which then became Unicorn's permanent performing base until 1999. The Unicorn is a registered charity and is an Arts Council England National Portfolio organisation.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCg2qzE8USE
This is a trailer for a unicorn Theatre production of Cinderella for ages 6+, this look like a inspirational performance for our own story telling unit as we can see how all the character s are bursting with colour like the pink ladies and who the characters are over the top like the prince and step mother showing there full of energy. I also noticed that it appears the Step mother is played by a man which is clearly used for comic relief like in our jack and the beanstalk the mother is played by me for a similar reason of humor. I also noticed that there was some big and flamboyant dances which we sort of have but our could use more of the energy and flamboyancy shown in this production. Overall I like the unicorn theatre as it can clear show that it understands how to put on children shows as well as being an inspiration for me into further developing our own production.

Goldilocks part 2

Today we continued working on our silhouette performance of Goldilocks.

We went over our creations from last lessons which were the creation of the woods, the bears, chairs and the beds in silhouette as well as our transition between them which would be done by us rolling. After we had covered the silhouettes we had created we moved on to our new silhouettes we needed to create for the story. We first worked on a  opening where we see baby bear about to eat the porridge but mama bear telling baby bear not to. We created a table made of Tom and Dan M with a prop that is going to be made with a stick and paper cut outs that will look like a silhouettes of bowls. We then skipped ahead as we had already staged the next couple of silhouettes and re-created the bowls but with each bear saying their food had been eaten. We then did chairs with the bear saying their chairs have been sat on. Baby bear then says "My chair is broken", we created this by laying on the floor below the shadow and using our hands to create rubble over the floor. Finally we did the beds but with bears reacting that someone has been in their beds. After we get back to the beds and baby bears wakes up Goldilocks who was still in the bed, we make the parents into a big clump shouting at Goldilocks made of Tom, Dan S, Carl and Dan M. We then show Goldilocks running back through the woods but the woods isn't as nice at the start as the bird attacks her this time and the flower is venous fly-trap. We then went back to the start and created the house made of all of us but Freya. We then decided we end the piece with the three bears but then holding hands in the silhouette so that it seemed more of a happy ending instead of a girl being scared by bears. We went back near the start to add in the silhouette of the 3 bears house which we needed to create still, Tom came up with the idea of 2 people laying down with their legs up as the walls, tom was in the center holding the legs up, 3 of us then filled the gaps between then so the it was a whole shape then finally the last 2 made roof by using their bodies as an archway.

 

I believe today we managed to show great imagination especially with the creation of the 3 bears house as we we're all unique in our creations and ideas for the silhouettes we made. To improve as a group we need to put more energy into our rehearsals now so that we can get a better end result as I feel some of us could be putting more energy into our pieces which would then help us to get a better reaction from the children. we will also need to practice this piece the most as it is a very physical and precise piece so will need to practice to make this as perfect as possible so the silhouettes look better.

Research: TV Shows

TV show 1: Tree Fu Tom

Tree Fu Tom is a live-action/CGI CBeebies children's television program which has been shown on BBC and CBeebies in the UK and Sprout and NBC Kids in the USA. It is set in a miniature magical countryside and village area (Treetopolis) on the top of a part of a trunk of a big tree in a British-type woodland, where the trunk turns horizontal and then vertical again. It is aimed mostly at 2-6 year olds. The series was developed in conjunction with the Dyspraxia Foundation with the aim of promoting movement. Foundation specialists Sally Payne and Dr Lynda Foulder-Hughes worked with the series creators to develop the movements Tree Fu Tom uses to create magic. Five percent of children have developmental coordination disorder, and these movements are similar to those used by occupational therapists to help child development. It is also hoped that the spells will help get exercise into the lives of young children.

Opinion: This is a successful Children's TV show for many reasons like the the interesting stories that helps play on young children's imagination with bright colour and unique characters in the story. This show is also successful as it help children with interaction towards the show as its about being energetic and this TV show helped children channel their creativeness and energy towards a better life style at a young age

TV show 2: Something Special

Something Special is a children's television programme presented by a men called Justin Fletcher and produced and broadcast by the BBC. It is designed to help entertain children with signing and is specifically aimed at children with delayed learning and communication difficulties. The show is on the CBeebies channel and in the past was also broadcast as part of the CBeebies programme strand on BBC One and BBC Two. The name of the programme derives from the idea that all children, irrespective of their position on the learning spectrum, are special. Their format of the show has evolved considerably since the original series. In 2012, a new series, "Something Special - We're All Friends" started, introducing some minor changes to the "Out and About" format. This format change has also included a change in location, and introduced the Tumble Tap, a tablet computer showing the "special things" to look for.

Opinion: Something Special is a successful children’s show because it is able to keep children’s attention as it only runs from between 15-20 minutes which means it doesn’t bore the children with a long run time. The show also uses creative ways of telling their stories with the characters like Mr tumble who are very flamboyant which is entertaining to young children as well as having a distinctive voice that is ear catching and easy to understand for young children. Another reason the show is successful is that it is musical gifted with engaging songs for young children with important messages and catchy tunes.