Rehearsal Room Notes: Week 3

Week 3 and we are starting to get a clearer picture of the play.

We just had a really productive rehearsal and a final decision was made for our basic theme of the play to be Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD).

All research was collected together and discussed and it was fascinating to see the complexity of the disorder. However, with its complexity comes a real challenge for the company and the writers. Lots of questions were raised:

How do we portray BDD? Do we want to use the disorder in a subtle way or an educational one? How do we define the characters?

To help us explore these questions and find answers we worked on the written monologues, and after performing them we discussed what we thought was most effective. Firstly, the characters that had been developed helped us think more about the effects of the disorder and how each sufferer brings a different aspect to the understanding of it. Secondly, some monologues concentrated more on relationships with other characters then with the disorder. With this in mind we realised that the characters should not be defined by their disorder and that the play should concentrate more on the diversity of the characters, their relationships and their personal journeys. Overall, a narrative was beginning to develop that was not directed completely around BDD.

For next week the writers have to write a scene that could be opening scene to the play, but it should not directly mention BDD. The rest of the company have to do some research on BDD and real life stories about the disorder. From their research they then have to create a 30-second performance.

Recomended esearch::
www.thebddfoundation.org
Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall
Staying at Home: BBC Documentary by Stephen Wenstwood