Styles

The 39 steps is a very slapstick comedy relying on big actions for the comedy, what makes "39 steps" very slapstick is because of the plot of the show as a definition of slapstick is clumsy actions and humorously embarrassing events which is shown the natural plot of Hannay trying to get to scotland in Act 1, we have used slapstick elements in all of our scenes for 39 steps as a lot of slapstick is written into the script like when Annabella dies and falls across Hannay stopping his movement, this is very slapstick as it is a clumsy action. the style of slapstick is all over the show as the main style of 39 steps is slapstick. Another style that is used a lot in 39 steps is multi rolling as the show is reliant on a four person cast so needs to use multi rolling. Multi rolling would be a key part of 39 steps as it is another form of the show's humour like in the train scene where the two clowns keep changing between the Salesmen, Porter, Mrs Higgins, Policeman and paper boy. This scene is made incredibly funny due to the chaotic and randomness of the changing characters, without this the scene becomes a lot more dull. A style 39 steps is very similar to how the english comedy group "Monty python" work in the sense of Monty python create humorous sketches for their audiences while 39 steps is performed very similar with each scene of 39 steps feeling like a sketch in a comedy show.
An idea our group had was adapting the style of "The play that goes wrong" as we had watch a scene from the play one lesson and really like how they performed the show so we had worked on adapting the style to 39 steps. We showed this style in like the scene where Annabella dies over Hannay, after Hannay gets out we leave her on the chair as we just move it to the side for the next scene and then back on after. Another part of how we adapted this was in our last scene of the Act between the professor and Hannay, for this scene we wanted to make it seem like to the audience we didn't know our lines so had another one of us behind the curtain reading out the lines behind the curtain every time one of us cofed the line was read out obviously to the audience before we'd then say it. We made this idea even more obvious by repeating lines already said before and us as actors acknowledging this and reacting to this. Another part we have kind of adapted from the play that goes wrong is just before Hannay gets shot, as the professor looks in all his pockets and then just points his hand at Hannay like a gun, we thought this was funny because it makes the professor look like he's forgot the gun and very childish as he's using his hand as a gun.

Transitions

We were working on our plan for staging of 39 nine steps and our plains for transitions as we are performing in the Avenue theatre as it is a small theatre that will accommodate the tone of the show helping the audience to be immersed in the humour. Our transitions will be done by our cast to help with the humour side having random bits of scenery come on like in Crofter's house when i'm told to take a seat, so I look around see there is nothing so go into the wings and pull on a table with 3 chairs on, or in the professor's house when the professor appears he slides on in the armchair acting like he's alway been their. I like these scene changes as they add their own bit of humour to an already funny show making the show just as quirky. We played with the idea of transitions by using the idea of our characters being aware their in a show, so like in the pilot scene when the plain crashes they keep screaming, look at the audience like whats going on before getting up and just leaving like this was suppose to happen which was but has the illusion of it going wrong.

Today we have found out that the Avenue have a performance booked on the day we want to perform our production so we are now doing the show in our schools main hall as it has helped us change some transitions to make them more appealing. A member of our group suggested having our stage curtains closed a it helps makes the stage look more full with us on it as we are a small cast, this idea helped us come up with an another idea for transitions which involves having the train scene preset behind the curtain and for the start of the scene having it open into the train scene. After the train scene ends it would close until Crofter scene when Margaret lets Hannay into the house which is the que to open the curtain showing the house. I liked this as it was an easier way for us to set up scenes as well as creating an illusion of entering the house with the curtain opening. Another new transition we added was in the radio announcer scene where Hannay jumps of the bridge, for this i'm actually going to jump of the stage as it will help add to the humour of the scene when our sound effect of me falling goes off. Overall for 39 steps we have managed to create a load of creative and humours scene changes and movements between our scene.

Voice

As I am playing Hannay in our production of 39 steps so my understanding of voice is a lot similar then everyone else as I do not multi role so I only need one voice. My voice for Hannay needs to be a well brought up posh man from the thirties. I was able to mold my voice into this easy but I had a recurring problem. My pronouncing of some words isn't great due to the area and people I was brought up with I naturally slur words and don't pronounce all the letters of a word. I spent a short time working on this as once I became aware of this I was able to adapted and change my speech pattern. I had another bigger problem with my voice that was later pointed out to me and that was with my "f" and "th". I had a speech pattern where I would naturally say "th" as "f" making words like "that" into "fat" or "thirty" into "firty". This was becoming a big issue for me that I was struggling to overcome as I found my self naturally saying "f" for every thing.
To try and help with thus issue I looked up some tongue twisters that I could use to help involving "th".

"I thought a thought. But the thought I thought wasn't the thought I thought I thought"

"They threw three thick things"

"Father, mother, sister, brother- hand in hand with one another"

I used these tongue twisters before practicing Hannay's monologue at the start of the show. These tongue twisters over time helped with this issue but has not got rid of it. While playing Hannay I have to really thing about the movement of tongue because. Eventually after focusing on this issue I was able to use my voice with thus only being a little issue in my performance as I still naturally find myself saying "th" but the amount I do this has definitely decreased since I became aware of the issue and started working on it.

Pace

This is the definition of pace: "the speed at which someone or something moves, or with which something happens or changes". Pace can make or break the performance of "The 39 steps". The 39 Steps is a much beloved english comedy play and one of the reasons that it's such a successful comedy is because of the pace of the show and the amount of energy put in by the actors. Each scene needs to be treated like a little sketch where we focus all our energy and focus on because if we are splitting our focus across the show, we won't be using all our energy in each scene. The show doesn't work if the actors talk really slow and their movement is lacking the energy the show very quickly becomes boring so the high energy is needed to make 39 steps the spectacle that it is. Pace is enssntial weather the scene needs the slow pace reaction for an old man moving and talking or the face pace speak between Hannay and the milkman when he's trying to run away, Pace is constantly used in the show and without the pace the show becomes a bit boring as it goes from scene to scene needing to change pace every scene to what is suitable for the interractions between characters while still keeping the fast pace sketch like performance tone. In Thirty-Nine Steps pace is most important to the two clowns as although Hannay and the girl do alot, the clowns have an endless number of quick changes and characters to perform as. Like in the train scene in Act 1 when the two clowns are constantly changing between the two underwear salesmen, a policeman, a paper boy, Mrs Higgins and the train assistant. This scene would lose all comedic value if the clowns pace is slow because the changes between the characters needs to be fast and chaotic.